The Long Lived Crown
by Caltrop
Summary: The poison began to obscure Delta's vision, rendering him incapable of fighting. Noticing this, Anubis unleashed an array of punches at their attacker in a fit of rage and revenge. He had not come all this way just to have his money stolen, the money for his plane ticket home. 'Keep your eye on the prize,' Anubis thought to himself as he backhanded the assailant.
1. Restraint

_The Long Lived Crown_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or 'The Tower of Learning' (by Rufus Wainwright).  
However, I _do_ own all fictional characters in this story.  
**

******Reviews are always appreciated!**

**Contains Suggestive Themes & Language.**

* * *

"Inevitably, your friends and loved ones will eventually pass on... But your fond memories of them are yours to cherish, and your fond memories, they will never die..."  
_-Delta _

*** I: Restraint ***

"Blue Boy," uttered the gruff voice of a man as he sat down on the end of a sofa, opposite of where the dog-like creature he referred to as 'Blue Boy' was sitting. He positioned his rear until he was comfortable and threw his leg over the other. The man looked to be in his late teenage years; perhaps he was around nineteen or twenty years old. He took the appearance of a dirty scruff, his dark brown mullet could easily be mistaken for a dead animal if gazed upon from afar.

The man looked towards the other end of the couch at his blue 'friend' and grinned. His brown eyes full of wicked evil, his face encrusted with dried dirt. He put a finger to his chin, still staring, still grinning.

Blue Boy, only a yard and a half away, felt his trainer's eyes on him, but he continued to look at what was in front of him. Eventually, he became uncomfortable, and shifted his head slightly in the man's direction.

The man, noticing his pet's uneasiness, felt satisfied and spoke up. "I'm feelin' pretty bored. Maybe you should entertain me."

Blue Boy's long, blue ears perked up. "And how," he replied, nonchalantly.

The trainer chuckled silently. "Dance. Dance for me. I want to see how good you are at it."

The small, messy house fell quiet as the two sat on the couch. Seeing that Blue Boy wasn't moving, the man's grin faded. His eyes narrowed. "Blue Boy. Earth to Blue Boy."

Blue did not move from where he sat. He did not budge, he just continued to stare at what was in front of him apathetically. Another moment of silence passed. The man knew Blue Boy could hear him, and this made him angry. "Dance, Blue Boy," he said, forcefully.

Blue Boy sat still. Yet another moment of silence passed. He winced as the man quickly stood up. Before he knew it, the man is in his face.

"Didn't you hear me, mutt?" the man spoke through his yellow teeth. "I said dance."

Blue Boy hesitated before casually replying. "I don't dance."

The trainer smiled, as if he was somewhat fond of the dog's response. "Well, I'll be," the man cheered as he stood straight. "It's been quite a while since you last disobeyed me. You know the drill."

Blue Boy nodded, and got up to his feet. The two made their way to the front door of the house. The bright sun blinding them both as they exited the building. They stood on a wooden porch in a small neighborhood, mostly full of trailers and dilapidated houses. The house of which they both shared was small, but it had a large, grassy yard, full of worn down playground objects and small jungle gyms.

Blue Boy reluctantly got on his knees and looked up towards the trainer, who noticed the blue hound's posture and laughed.

"Man, Anubis," he cracked his knuckles with ease as he approached the dog. "You should consider yourself lucky. Who knows what you'd be going through right now if you was a girl."

It was not often that the trainer would refer to his pet by his real name. Anubis was nicknamed 'Blue Boy' for two reasons, one being that his fur was mostly blue, the other being that his trainer was extremely uncreative.

The man raised his fists. Anubis closed his eyes and waited patiently for the inevitable. The man proceeded to lash out at the dog's head and shoulders. The dog didn't try to escape or fight back, he just tried not to jerk back too much from all the blows.

The two didn't know it, but they had an audience. Just across the road was a small Jessamine bush that hadn't quite flowered yet. Inside sat a small, black cat-like animal. It had a golden ring platelet on its forehead, two more on its hind legs, another surrounding its long tail, and two more surrounding its long ears. It's bright red eyes gawked at the event taking place just across the road. 'What exactly... am I looking at, here?' it asked itself.

Finally, to the black cat's relief, the beatings ceased. Anubis shakily got back on his feet and stood there. One of his crimson-red eyes now refused to open. small bruises began to form on his shoulders and on his cheekbones. A speck of blood dripped from a small cut near his temple. The cut, though, wasn't entirely visible due to Anubis' thick fur.

The trainer relaxed his arms and looked around the neighborhood, sighing. "Do you know why I still have you?"

Anubis wiped at his bloody patch of fur. "What do you mean?"

"Do you know why I haven't gotten rid of you?"

Anubis thought about it for a second. "You use me for awing your lady friends and for doing your chores."

The man chuckled. "You're right, but there is another reason. But... I won't tell you what it is right now. You may find out in the near future." He grinned as he scanned the playground. "Listen, Blue Boy, how would'a feel if I took ya back to Egypt?"

Anubis took no notice of the man's inquiry, as it was probably a cruel joke of his. The man looked at Anubis and smiled.

"I bought airplane tickets. I didn't tell you before because I wanted to surprise you. We're leaving today!"

Anubis looked at his trainer, whose smile told him that what he was telling was true, but Anubis could see past his smile. He could see all the man's emotions with a single glance. He decided to roll with it. "...Alright, then let's go."

The man grinned as he took Anubis by the arm and led him down the steps of the porch and towards the playground, saying "All aboard!" The two of them stopped at an old, busted up sandbox.

Anubis gritted his teeth. 'How typical,' he thought to himself.

"We're here," the trainer said joyously. "Egypt!" He took from his pocket a red and white sphere. It looked to be made out of cheap plastic, as if it were a McDonald's happy meal toy. "Alright, BB, as further punishment, this is where you will be staying for a week. I'll see you in seven days." The man opened the ball and a ray of red light engulfed Anubis as he was sucked into the spherical cage. Anubis had miraculously dissipated into thin air. _But how_?

The man formed a small hole in the sand before placing the ball in it and covering it up. "Have fun in Egypt, you miserable mutt. In the mean time, I have some chores to do." With that, the trainer returned to his house and disappeared in the doorway.

The black cat that was hiding in the Jessamine bush was thankful that the horror had ended. 'What did I just watch? Was that blue thing _willing_ to be beaten up by that human? No, of course not.' The cat left the bush and made his way across the road. He now sat at the border between the sidewalk and the human's lawn. 'I have to help it, but... will I be able to?' The cat pondered nervously for a few minutes. 'No... _Sheesh_, it can help itself. An animal of that size can easily take out any stingy human. Although... it's been trapped.' The cat had two armies clashing in his head; he didn't know what to do. 'Should I really risk my life for this strange character whom I've never even met before?'

Finally, the cat came to a final decision. "Dammit," he said as he cautiously made his way towards the sandbox, feeling the soft grass underneath him, notifying him that he was in the enemy's territory. He leaped into the box and, knowing exactly where the ball had been buried, began digging. A drop of sweat began to roll down the side of his head as he occasionally looked towards the door of the house.

Once the ball had been fully uncovered, the cat's paws tried their best to roll the ball from its hole and out of the box. The wooden barriers that held the sand in place proved to be a tough obstacle for the cat and the ball. Nuzzling the ball up the wood with his paws wasn't working out very well, so he tried to bite down on the ball with his mouth, but the ball was too large to fit. The cat had no time to laugh at this innuendo. On the ball protruded a white button. The cat managed to place his jagged teeth around the button, just barely. He shifted his head about, making sure the button was stable in his mouth. He then jumped from the sandbox and sprinted out of the yard and down the avenue. He ran for about seven minutes before he noticed the buildings becoming bigger and bigger. The small, wretched neighborhood was gradually becoming a town. The cat stopped under the awning of a bus stop. He dropped the ball from his mouth, leaving a small amount of saliva on the button. The sphere made a cheap, hollow noise as its plastic bounced against the asphalt.

The cat stared at the ball in confusion. He pushed it around a bit with his paw, studying it. He then examined the button. 'How the hell do you use these things?' the cat asked himself as he brushed off his saliva from the button. The ball then shook slightly as it popped open, releasing Anubis from its confinements. The cat leapt backwards into the air in shock.

Anubis rubbed his eyes. A sharp pain shot through his face when his paw came in contact with his bruised eye. He yelped, clutching at his face. 'Seven days _already_?'

The black cat looked up and down the dog's body, noting the dog's physical characteristics: It was almost entirely blue, except for its black paws and legs, its beige torso, its black shoulders, and what looked like a black, burglar-style mask surrounding its crimson colored eyes. Four black, tendril-like appendages hung from the back of its head to his shoulders. Two small, metallic spikes, showing quite an amount of luster in the sunlight, protruded from the dog's paws. If it ever backhanded someone, it would leave some serious damage. Surrounding its neck was a bushy, cream colored mane, and underneath that was another metal spike on its chest. It had a long, blue tail that wavered in the wind, its tip bent to be pointing towards the ground. Its overall body was fairly slender and well built.

'I've never seen this thing before,' thought the cat. If a human had had a threesome with a jackal and a bucket of blue paint, this would have probably been the product (obviously, this was impossible).

While the cat was sorting out all these equations in his head, Anubis was starting to panic.

"Where am I?" he questioned himself. "M-Master?" Anubis' glance fell on the black cat, their eyes met for the first time. "Hrm. Hello, little guy. Do you, by any chance, know where we are?" Anubis got on one knee, in case he seemed intimidating to the small animal.

The cat inspected the bruises on the human-jackal hybrid's body with a concerned look on his face.

"Oh," Anubis bluntly uttered. "Do they look like they're healing?"

"No. You shouldn't have let that human treat you like that."

Anubis stood up again and looked around, remembering his trainer. "Where is he? If I'm here, he has to be here, too."

The cat grew quizzical, seeing the dog so concerned about where his 'master' was. "He's not here. He's in his house, almost a mile away."

Anubis looked bewildered. "What? What do you mean?"

"I saw him abusing you. You shouldn't have let him done that and gotten away with it. After you were buried in that-uh... pseudo beach box, I dug you up and rescued you."

Anubis didn't respond, he stood still, his eyes affixed on something across the street. Finally, he spoke up. "What do you mean you _rescued_ me? You're going to get me in so much trouble with my master. Why on Earth would you do this to me?"

The black cat glared at Anubis. "Huh? Are you kidding me? You don't need to see your master again. I-rescued-you! From him."

"No, no, no," The dog sighed and knelt down again, looking at the cat. "You wouldn't understand. What's your name? Mine's Anubis."

"A-noo-bus? Sounds exotic." The cat shook its head, annoyed with himself for becoming sidetracked . "Listen, Anubis, you're free now. You don't need to see your master anymore. No more beatings, no more dirty property, no more inbred neighborhood! You're free to explore the world now," the cat said happily.

"But my master, I can't leave him. Who knows what the consequences would be if I tried to run away. You've already gotten me into enough trouble as it is. Besides, I-I'm happy with my trainer."

'Has he been brainwashed or something?' the cat wondered. 'It may take some effort to change this poor guy's mind.' The cat eyed the blue dog up and down. This mysterious creature was one of which he had never seen before. "My name is Delta."

"Huh. That's a nice name," Anubis said, ruffling the fur on the cat's head. "...For a type of water-way." Anubis suddenly felt a peak of sadness exuding from Delta. He tried to change the subject. "Are you one of those Eevee forms?"

"Yes," Delta said. "I'm an umbreon."

"An _embreon_?"

"An embryo?"

"Huh?"

Delta waved it off with his paw. "So, what are _you_? I've never seen your kind before."

"I'm a lucario. You've probably never seen lucarios before because they're only native to Northern Africa, Northern South America, and Australia."

"Then why are you here?"

Anubis sighed and rubbed his injured temple. "I met my trainer in Egypt. He found me, captured me, and took me away from my hometown, Luxor. I've never been there since. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back." He looked around the area until he spotted the street sign. "Oh, Koshington Avenue! I know where I am. So long, Delta," he waved to the umbreon as he turned and started to make his way down the street. Down the street... back to his house.

Delta watched Anubis walk off, unable to even contemplate what was going through that crazy dog's head. Delta got up and followed the lucario. "Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing? What's wrong with you?"

Anubis looked back. "What are you saying?"

"So you're just going to go back to your abusive trainer and live out the rest of your life in pain and anguish? You have a window of opportunity, here, and you're ignoring it!"

"Listen, Delta, I can understand if you can't make any sense of my ways. You probably don't have a trainer of your own, but if you did, I think you'd have a different view of the whole trainer-catch-animal ordeal. You see, when you're caught by a trainer, there's this bond that's automatically formed. A bond of inseparability and respect. Maybe my trainer doesn't respect me, but I respect him. It's just the way things work. Delta, for your own sake and future, don't screw up like I did. Don't trust _anyone_."

"I'm sorry, Anubis, but you sound flat out pathetic right now. You talk about how you like your master, even though you just admitted to screwing up your life by trusting this person! You clearly don't like him, you're just scared of getting caught by him after you escape, which is practically impossible; this world is so damn huge he would never be able to find you if you left."

Anubis turned to Delta and glared at him. "I don't care what you have to say," he shrilled. "I've gradually learned to spurn all emotions since my trainer caught me. I'm fine with my life, and I'm not changing it one bit."

"Then what does that make you? A hollow shell of someone who once had a great life, living in Africa?" Delta was gradually raising his voice, becoming more and more annoyed at how stubborn and senseless this dog was.

Anubis' ears perked up as something came to his mind. "Where is my orb?"

"Your orb?"

"The red and white ball that I was in, you had it, didn't you?"

Delta suddenly remembered the sphere that had released Anubis when its button was pressed against. "Oh, that thing... I think I left it by the bus st—" Delta stopped speaking. He turned to the lucario, squinting his eyes. Anubis returned the glance.

The red and white ball.

Delta did not want Anubis to suffer any more. He had only seen him get beaten one time, but surely, he must get beaten more often than that! He was not about to let this thick-skulled hound throw his life away. He somewhat cared for Anubis, and seeing the recent events that he had endured had traumatized Delta severely.

Anubis could tell what Delta was thinking. Their eyes were still glued to each other. "No, p-please," he managed to utter out. He felt a familiar sensation, one of which he hadn't felt in a long time. It made him quake where he stood.

The sensation was fear.

"Delta," Anubis pleaded, "This is what I want. You don't know the consequences of—"

"There will be no consequences if he doesn't know where you are," yelled the umbreon. He seemed loud and forceful for a creature so small.

Anubis frowned, trying to recover from his fright. "The ball is mine." In a split second, the lucario darted past Delta with such speed, it had caught the cat by surprise. Delta shook his head and hightailed it after Anubis. The bus stop was only ten meters away.

Delta had to admit, Anubis was _fast_, but Delta had something he didn't: Two extra legs. The cat bypassed Anubis with ease and made it to the ball.

Anubis growled as he came to a halt. Delta shielded the ball from the lucario with his body.

"Give it to me," cried Anubis.

"No," Delta replied, carefully lifting his body from the sphere. "This is for your own good." He positioned the sphere underneath him so that the button pointed towards the dog.

"I beg of you," Anubis said, resorting to pathetic pleads for mercy. "If you really want me happy..."

"I do," Delta responded as he pressed against the button with his feline equivalent of a finger. Anubis had once again miraculously disappeared, sucked inside the plastic chamber. Delta's heart pounded. He had saved a fellow animal today, but he hadn't felt like he had succeeded in earning a friend. Maybe that crazy jackal will become enlightened sooner of later. But right now, Delta had to get far away from this town - from this state. He didn't mind leaving the state. After all, he was a nomad who started his journey in Florida and since then, he headed north up the coast of America. He figured, what with this fad of bath salts and what-not, he might as well travel to Canada to get away from the constant danger of the United States.

Delta bit down on the sphere's button and made his way through the town until he found a building that looked of grandeur importance. A sign above the door read '_South Carolina, Socastee City Train Station_'.

The umbreon entered the building, still carrying the ball in his mouth. A digital screen, hanging from the ceiling in the corner of the station, showed various times that trains would enter and depart. One train was for North Carolina. It was due to arrive within one hour. Delta had no problem with waiting, although he did tend to get a bit hyper active when staying in one place for a long time. He figured one hour was fine for him to handle, so he went outside the station to watch the sun set as odd looking strangers past by. Once the train had arrived, Delta boarded it, trying not to be seen by any station guards or regulators. Once Delta was on, he sat on a seat and waited for the train to depart. He released the ball from his sore teeth and placed it next to him.

"I'm sorry, Anubis," Delta mused, looking at the ball. "You'll realize that this is what you want soon enough." The umbreon watched as the landscape outside the train flew by at great speeds. Eventually, the red and orange hue in the sky faded into a dark blue hue. The rising moon, a waning gibbous, emitted its light upon the vast, rolling hills of South Carolina. Volbeat and illumise danced around the hills, seen as but little spots of light in the distance.

Delta smiled. It was as if he could feel the gene pool growing larger and larger as the train traveled further north. 'So long, South Carolina. You, unlike certain other states, will not be missed.'


	2. Acceptance

*** II: Acceptance ***

By the time the train had crossed over the border into North Carolina it was already eleven at night. Delta stirred slightly in his seat as he looked out the window at the passing scenery. He had been on the train for several hours, now, and he was growing impatient and jittery. He couldn't sleep. Dark types never slept much.

The train ran over each track segment making a repetitious 'clunking' noise. Delta's heart raced, until it beat in unison with the clunking of the train. A bead of sweat made its way down Delta's forehead. Maybe he should have just traveled on foot, like he usually does, but what about Anubis' red and white cage? It would have been too hard for the small cat to have traveled with it in his maw. Delta figured once the train arrived, he would release Anubis and have him carry his own ball.

Finally, the train stopped at its destination, summing up the amount of time Delta had travelled to nearly five hours. Delta snuck out of the station and found a large, vacant parking lot. It was a good place for Delta to burn off the energy that had built up inside him. Nearly five minutes later, once Delta was tired of running in circles, he picked up the sphere and disappeared into the trees, leaving the parking lot behind.

The umbreon wanted to find a nice place to spend the night, preferably a quiet beach or an open field. He headed east until he could sense the air beginning to dampen. He felt a calm breeze, one that smelt of salty water. Delta's golden rings began to glow dimly as he neared a beach. He emerged from the forest and was greeted by the sound of the roaring waves. In between the forest and the sea was a strip of sand dunes, covered in shrubbery. As Delta searched for a place to rest, he began to feel a little apprehensive about releasing Anubis. 'He is going to be _pissed _when he finds out where he is,' Delta thought.

Finally, Delta came upon a large patch of sand atop one of the dunes. There were no plants growing there, so Delta decided it would be the most comfortable place to try and relax. He sat down and played with the sand for a moment with his paws. He sighed and prepared for Anubis' scowl, setting the ball down and pushing lightly against its button.

Anubis appeared in front of Delta, who backed away, startled by the abrupt explosion of red light. Anubis looked around, but to his discomfort, he couldn't see anything. A loud crashing noise sounded in his ears. "H-Hello?"

Delta looked at the odd jackal-human, tilting his head to the side.

"Master?" the lucario called out. Then, he frowned. "Delta?" He kneeled down and felt the ground surrounding him. It felt much like the sand box! Was he back in his yard? He turned around and noticed the faint glow of the golden rings. They hovered in mid-air, eerily. "Oh. Delta," he said, folding his arms.

"H-Hi, Anoobus," Delta greeted him nervously.

Anubis looked at the moon, listening to the sound of the waves crashing. He _was not_ in his sand box. He was somewhere else. Near the ocean, perhaps? "You've kidnapped me."

"I had to."

"Where are we?" Anubis looked to Delta. His unscathed eye was gradually getting used to the dark. He could see the umbreon's outline. He could also sense the trepidation the umbreon felt.

"Well," Delta said, unsteadily. "You may not like the answer..."

"Tell me. Are we still in Socastee? Are we in Forestbrook? Bucksport? Tell me, now!"

"Uh-huuhu-huh... North Carolina."

"North Caroli – North Carolina!?" Anubis yelled in disbelief as his fell to the ground, a paw on his forehead. He stared up at the moon, breathing heavily. "You..." he turned to Delta, feeling another familiar sensation. He felt angry towards Delta. He wanted to yell his heart out at the cat for kidnapping him, for taking him away from his family. But... this was how he felt when his trainer took him away from his _real_ family. He remembered the fury he felt when he was released from his cage to find that he was in a different country, far away from his loved ones. Rage built inside him with each command and order he was given, until he felt like he could snap. He had no choice but to blank out his anger and the rest of his negative emotions by forcing himself to accept his new life and look on the bright side of things.

Anubis didn't know whether he should take his newly unlocked anger out on Delta or his trainer. His trainer wasn't there with him, it was only Delta. He screamed at the sky in a fit of hatred and confusion. This made Delta recoil in shock. When Anubis couldn't scream anymore, he fell on his back, relaxed, and stared at the sky, panting. Delta gave him a moment to collect himself.

"There's no point in arguing with you, anymore," Anubis finally sighed. He wasn't going back to his trainer's house and that was that. But what if his trainer finds him? Who knows what hell would ensue. "My trainer... will be angry when he finds out. He'll be angry when he can't awe his lady friends anymore," Anubis chuckled to himself.

"He's not going to find you, okay? You don't have anything to worry about, unless he's planted one of those tracking chips inside you, but, quite frankly, I'd be surprised if he had that kind of money."

"Fine, okay," the dog muttered, trying to accept his abduction.

Delta laid himself on the cool sand and looked at the moonlit ocean. "It's different here in America. There are no trainers, anymore. Training animals is far too passé, so people catch them and... _enslave_ them. Has your master ever actually made you practice your moves?"

"What do you mean by my _moves_?" Anubis replied quizzically.

"You know, your attacks. Your Thunderbolts or your Giga Drains or whatever."

"Oh, my aura spheres? My trainer only made me use those for impressing his girlfriends," Anubis stated, gently caressing his hurt eye. "I-I see what you mean, Delta. Yes, he made me work and do his chores. I see why he wouldn't be considered a trainer."

"I'm glad you're finally coming out of your shell," Delta smiled. There was a moment of silence that followed before Anubis spoke up.

"So... no one trains animals anymore?"

"No, we're sentient and can understand what the humans can say. We're reliable and loyal... Some of us, that is. So one day, one of the humans said 'Hey, animal battles are getting super boring and I don't have time for them anyway, what with all these chores. I know, I'll make the animals do my chores for me, while I watch the moving picture screen, eat some food, maybe have a wank.' Man, was Egypt as bad as this?"

"Egypt isn't really as advance as America, so no," Anubis smiled, remembering how it was like. "I kind of liked it that way."

"Yeah, Jesus, euck, maybe you've heard of this already: Humans now force their pets to mate with them!"

"Yeah, I'm aware. If I was female, there would be no doubt my trainer would have... you know. With me. _Everyday_..."

Delta shook his head in disgust. "I don't know about you, but humans are ugly as hell. All pink and squishy and fat. I'd rather mate with... a muk!"

Anubis shuddered at the thought of the acidic blob engulfing his genitals. "I'd rather mate with a trubbish."

Delta grinned, wickedly. "Oh, you wanna play _this_ game, do ya? I'd rather mate with a bidoof."

"Bidoof? Really? Sure, they're annoying and all, but they're not really _that_ unattractive... I'd rather mate with a gothita. Those things were _all over_ Egypt."

"I'd rather mate with a jynx."

Anubis chuckled. "I'd rather mate with... a miltank!"

"Ah, you think you can win this? I'd rather mate with... a slaking! Boom!" Delta shouted as he jumped into the air.

"...You."

"Automatic win!"

It was at that point that the umbreon and the lucario started to consider themselves as friends. _Minor_ friends, for now, but their friendship could grow. Seeing as they were probably going to be traveling together now, they would probably be spending a decent amount of time together. Anubis smiled and patted Delta on the head. "I'm going to get some rest."

"What?" Delta frowned. The fun had come to an end. "You're just gonna leave me? Weren't you sleeping in your orb?"

"Being in that orb is like, well, being dead, I guess."

"Hey, Anubis, how long have you lived here?"

"About a year."

Delta was utterly astonished. "_Only_ a year? But-but your English is so fluent!"

Anubis laughed, turning on his side to face Delta. "You know, I'm not as dumb as you think. I caught on quickly. We lucario are pretty wise animals."

"Not when it comes to getting captured and enslaved, though," Delta replied.

"Perhaps you're right."

Delta looked at the lucario, who was positioning himself on the sand and slowly closing his eye. Delta didn't want to spend his sleepless night alone. He wanted to learn more about Anubis and what Luxor was like. "Uh... What's the most kinkiest thing you've ever done?" Delta was not good at starting conversations.

"Egyptians don't really... do a lot of that kind of stuff. They don't indulge in bestiality like certain other places." Anubis stretched out and yawned, shifting around to get comfortable again.

Delta looked at him, sadly. He wished he wasn't such an insomniac, but that's the life of the dark type. He was vexed about his traits and type. Evolving into an umbreon was not the fate he had expected to undergo, nor was it a very preferable fate. "Fine, go to sleep, then. I'll just try to lullaby myself to sleep," He said, grumpily curling up into a ball.

Anubis' ears twitched a bit, but then relaxed. He began to hear a faint, muffled vocal coming from Delta.

"...-Mm lookin' for... tow-of learnin'... Mm lookin' for... copious... prize..." Delta softly sang to himself.

The lucario sensed an emotion of sadness dispersing from Delta. 'Is he _singing_? What's he doing? That melody...'

"...-Saw it n'your eyes... what m'lookin' for..."

'What is he singing?' Anubis wondered as his ears aimed themselves towards the whispering cat.

"...-Saw it n'your eyes... t'll make... me... live..."

'Huh, that melody,' Anubis somewhat recognized the song from when he lived with his master. It was an _okay_ song, but nonetheless he still knew it enough to recite its lyrics. "All the sites of Paris... pale inside..."

Delta stopped singing and lifted his head to look at Anubis, who had started to sing along with him. He wore a look of surprise as he eyed Anubis. "...Your iris," Delta continued, simpering slightly.

"Tip the Eiffel Tower... with one glance, stained glass cathedrals... with one glint. You smashed it with your eyes... what I'm lookin' for... One blink and then my heart... wasn't there no more."

As they softly sang together, Anubis felt an aura of happiness drift from Delta, replacing his previous sorrowful emotions. Anubis felt happy, too. He felt like maybe Delta wasn't as bad as he originally opinionated him to be. Sure, he had technically kidnapped Anubis, but regardless, maybe it was for greater good.

Delta stopped singing and curiously asked Anubis where he had heard the song from.

"My master listened to a lot of soft rock," the dog replied. "But, of course, he listened to country music more often."

"Wow, it makes me so happy when someone recognizes the unpopular indie music I listen to," Delta said, cheerfully.

"Hey, Delta, what is that song about?"

"Hm," the cat stroked his chin, thinking of an answer. "Well, it's easy. You know the lyrics. Figure it out yourself."

"But I don't know what _copious_ and _glint _mean. What is the Tower of Learning? Is it in Paris?"

"I don't know if that's a real thing or not."

"Alright, well, I'm going to sleep. For real this time." Anubis laid back down, deep in thought. Eventually, though, he drifted off to sleep, leaving Delta to watch the moon proceed on its celestial path.

Delta cared about Anubis, enough to risk his life rescuing him from an abusive madman. He could tell that Anubis wanted to go back to Egypt badly, so he pondered for a bit until he came up with an idea: Travel up north all the while earning (obtaining) money. By the time they reach Maine, they should surely have enough to afford a plane ticket. 'Buying the ticket may be hard... Do we need the _internet _to do that?' Once they receive the ticket, Anubis will board his plane and fly back to his home, leaving Delta to explore Canada: Deemed as _one of the safest countries in the world_. 'But... an animal boarding an airplane seems so preposterous. Dammit, this plan is full of flaws. But we'll try nonetheless. The look on his friends' and family's faces when they see Anubis for the first time in ages... Aw.'

Delta grinned eagerly as he looked at the starry night sky and listened to the soothing crashes of the waves.

About forty yards away from the sleeping lucario and star-gazing umbreon was a large, overgrowing Yaupon bush, slightly rustling on its dune. Inside the bush sat a large beast with a thick coat of golden fur. It observed the two from its distance, its red eyes easily picking up every detail about them despite the large distance between them and the lack of daytime light. Its keen eyes had no pupils, but even so, its accurate and clear surveillance substantiated that its eyesight wasn't impaired by all these factors.

'It seems the blue dog has officially joined Klepto. I better be more careful. It might be more aware of its surroundings and less oblivious than Klepto has proved to be. Shoot, that dog may really affect my 'mission'...' The beast frowned, its multiple tails swaying around aimlessly inside the Yaupon.


	3. Kleptomania

*** III: Kleptomania ***

"I'm very disappointed in you, Blue Boy."

"I-I'm sorry, master... forgive me, please."

"Remember the army knife my pop gave me? I'm gonna get it, and I'm gonna cut you with it. You and your new friend. Your blood will stain my clothing and my hands. And I'll drink it. I'll drink your blood and you'll watch me drink it before your last breath escapes your lips!"

"Master... p-please, I beg for forgiveness!"

Anubis woke, his head throbbing. The sunlight was intense and each blaring crash of the waves made his head hurt even more. He sat, feeling his damaged eye. It was still sore, despite how it was gradually healing. As he got used to the bright light, he noticed Delta's absence.

The lucario struggled to stand up. The beach looked a lot different in the daytime than in the night. The ocean was bright blue, and every inch of its surface reflected a small amount of the sun's rays. A city was visible towards the north, about a couple miles up the beach. There wasn't a hint of wind, odd as that may be. The beach botanics didn't stir or wrestle, and the forest seemed just as quiet.

Anubis followed Delta's paw prints towards the shore. They ended where the sand was moist and hard-packed from the water. He looked up and down the beach, but he couldn't see the cat. Was he in the water? That'd be an odd place for a _cat_ to be. But, sure enough, Anubis managed to make out a small, black figure bobbing up and down in the waves. When it noticed Anubis, it swam to shore, undergoing quite a thrashing from the breaking waves.

"Are you alright?" Anubis asked, seemingly concerned, as Delta approached him.

"Couldn't be better," the umbreon happily replied, shaking his body and producing a fine mist.

"Didn't know you liked the ocean so much. I guess it suits your name, though." Anubis then felt another sensation of sorrow from Delta. He had forgotten of how that topic greatly depressed him. "Er, so are we going there?" Anubis pointed towards the city.

"I figured we could travel along the coast until we got to Maine, so we'll most likely be passing through the city."

"Is Maine the northeastern tip of America? How are we going to make it that far on foot? And what happens if we finally _do_ get there?"

Delta thought about telling Anubis about his airplane idea. 'Nah, it can wait.' He decided to change the subject. "Hey, you got your cage? I don't feel like carrying it around anymore."

The dog was confused as to why Delta hadn't answered him. "Huh, don't worry, I got it..."

The two proceeded along the beach, barely exchanging any conversation, until they reached the city. A boardwalk with a sign reading '_Welcome to_ _Morehedd_' linked the beach to the city. The two walked along the boardwalk, passing various people who were making their way to the ocean, eager and excited.

"How's your eye doing?" Delta asked.

"Well, it's really sore, but at least I can feel it."

They explored the city and watched the hustle and bustle of the busy citizens. They laughed and joked about the humans and their appearances. Finally, they noticed that they hadn't eaten for nearly twelve hours, and upon realizing this, Anubis began to panic.

"My trainer usually fed me," the lucario said wearily. "What am I supposed to do for food, now?"

"Relax," Delta ordered. "Leave the food situation to me. Just... uh... give me a second." He left Anubis and came back shortly afterwards, carrying what looked like a krokorok-skin purse in his mouth. Its strap had been ripped, but apart from that the bag looked to be in perfect condition.

"What's that?" Anubis questioned, suspiciously.

Delta thought for a moment before dropping the bag on the concrete. "It's a _bag_. Humans put money in it, then they leave them unattended in the streets. It's pretty common to find them around cities..."

"Huh. Back in Egypt, humans usually kept their money. Strange." Anubis scratched his neck, contemplating the difference between their countries. 'That's seems... a little out there.'

"Uh-huh. Let's go find a Food Growlithe. I'm hungry!"

The pair eventually found the supermarket: A large store full of food products and other miscellaneous items, but food was their primary interest.

"Okay, Anubis," Delta exclaimed, excitedly. "You're going to push me around in one of those!" He pointed at a hoard of conjoined shopping carts.

"As you wish," Anubis said, walking towards a cart and pulling it from the rest of the assemblage. "Hop in."

Delta happily leapt into the cart before feeling a rise of adrenaline as Anubis pushed him speedily throughout the aisles. People glared at them as they shopped, but they didn't notice or care. "Get those," the energetic umbreon yelled as he leaned out of the cart. "Get those... Wheat Thins! And those... Saltines!"

"Hold up, bucko, we can't carry _too_ many things. Even if they're put into bags."

"You know, Anubis, you're pretty lucky to have a body like that," Delta regarded Anubis' paws and legs with admiration.

"Are you coming on to me?" Anubis asked, slightly flattered.

"What? No, I mean you're pretty lucky to have a body like a human's. In a world of _man_made technology and machines, everyday life must be a piece of cake for you. Animals like me, us with our tiny paws, can't really use anything associated with humans, such as this cart. And look at me! I only weigh about fifteen, twenty pounds maybe. I'm a little boy!"

Anubis considered the similarity between him and the humans... He _was_ similar to them, body-wise, but there were major differences such as his size and his hound-like traits. "Hey, believe it or not, my paws still restrain me from doing a lot of things... And everyday is _not_ cake for me."

"The bottom line is you have two arms that you don't use for walking on, whereas certain other species need to walk on all fours... Get _those_! Get those biscuits!"

"I'll only get Saltines for soup, but not cookies."

"Hey, it's _my_ money!"

Anubis eyed Delta, skeptically. "_Is_ it your money, though?"

Delta didn't respond for a while until he finally muttered "Well... it's not _technically_ mine but... but that's because I found it on the street!" Delta quickly looked away and frowned. "Hmph!"

Anubis knew Delta was lying. He didn't even need to read his aura to know that. Where that money actually came from, Anubis didn't know. But he thought it'd be best not to converse about it in public.

Once they arrived at the checkout counter, the lucario paid the awestruck man with the money from the krokorok-skin bag.

"What-what... is this?" The man inquired, looking the blue-hound up and down. "Such fine fur... Such badass spikes... Such exquisite beauty!"

Anubis paid no attention to the cashier as he rambled and gawked. He gave him a couple bills, not knowing if it was enough or not. Frankly, he didn't care. The pair left with the grocery bags, leaving the man at the register amidst his daydreams.

Once they left the Food Growlithe, Delta dropped his grocery bag from his mouth and burst into laughter. "You gave him a ten and a single!"

"Oh, I did? My mistake," Anubis replied, nonchalantly.

They continued through the town until they found another boardwalk leading to the ocean. Then, they continued up the beach until Morehedd City was just as distant from them as when they woke up.

"Can we stop and eat, now?" Delta pleaded.

"Oh, right. Food." Anubis sat down on the sand and placed his two grocery bags down. "I hope the soup's not too cold."

The forested horizon split the sun in half as it set. The sky, dark red, was filled with bright orange and yellow clouds. The beach was seen in a pink-ish hue, as if it were being looked at through a pink filter. Anubis brought out two soup containers from a bag and put them firmly on the sand. He then brought out two spoons and handed one to Delta, who refused to take it. Delta looked at Anubis, baffled.

"Oh," Anubis exclaimed, before slapping his palm to his face. "I'm sorry. I-I could feed it to you... with the spoon."

"Yes, feed me," Delta ordered, teasingly. Anubis sighed and opened up the two cups of soup. He held two plastic spoons in his paws, one for him and one for his friend. He used the right spoon to feed the giggling umbreon, and the left spoon to feed himself.

"You enjoy using my capability to your advantage, don't you?"

"Yup, that's pretty much the only reason I rescued you! Where are the crackers?"

Anubis looked through his bags for the Saltines. Instead of taking out the crackers, he took out a small, cheap wallet and a roll of string. "Why'd you get these?" he asked.

"Ah, can you perhaps tie some of the string in a circle and attach it to the wallet? I want to wear it around my neck.

"I guess," the dog said, unraveling the yarn and biting a small portion of it off. He had a tough time trying to tie the knot, and he had to pause what he was doing every time the hungry Delta whined for food. Eventually, though, he managed to tie it without getting too frustrated in the process. The sun had fully submerged underneath the horizon, and the moon had risen from the ocean.

Delta happily wore his wallet around his neck. The main reason he had wanted a wallet was so he could easily collect money for the airplane, seeing as he is going to need _a lot_ of it.

"Delta, why'd you get that wallet, anyway?"

Delta decided he should tell Anubis his plan. He cleared his throat and began making his proposal. "How would you feel about going back to Egypt?"

"I would... be most happy to."

"Good, because I was thinking that if we earn enough money, we should be able to buy you a plane ticket and get you back there," Delta proudly exclaimed.

Anubis frowned. "Plane tickets... to Egypt... could cost as much as 800 dollars! I don't know if we can ever make that much money. We're just animals. Besides, how would I get on the plane?"

"Trust me, Anubis, I can get _twice _that amount of money by the time we get to Maine."

"Twice as much?"

"Please, we have to do this," Delta insisted.

Anubis sighed, gently feeling his bruised eye. "But... the _airport_." Anubis looked at his friend and smiled. "Alright, Del. I'll go _if_..."

Delta's ears perked up. "If?"

"..._if _you come with me."

Delta thought about it for a moment. He wondered why Anubis wouldn't just want to go by himself... unless Anubis really liked Delta. He had been planning to go to Canada, but... "If it makes you happy. Let's go to Egypt."

Anubis grinned and tried to hug him. It was an awkward hug for multiple reasons regarding his chest spike and their size contrast, but nonetheless, Anubis was appreciative and he made his point clear. He released Delta and chuckled, apologizing.

Delta was feeling a little tense and nervous from the hug, which lead him to wonder what Anubis' orientation was. "What was your life back in Egypt? Did you have a lover?"

Anubis frowned, remembering what had happened to him before he was captured. "Yes, there was a lucario that I was friends with for a while. Right before I was captured, I fell in love with her."

Delta let out a breath of relief at the word 'her'. "That sounds like a bad time to fall in love with someone," he snickered. "What was she like?"

"Well, she looked like an average lucario, _except _for an occasional pigment irregularity in between her ears and on her arms where her fur was more prone to growth. She would gnaw the extra hair off her arms, though. But, man, she looked stunning!"

"I wouldn't say fur growth pertains to pigmentation," Delta corrected him. "It's more like a growth disorder."

"Heh, maybe I'm not spot-on with my English yet."

"Wait," Delta's eyes widened. "If I'm going to go to Egypt, I'm going to have to learn Egyptian!?"

Anubis laughed. "Yeah, it's a tough language to learn. I'll teach you, though."

Delta groaned and laid on the sand. 'I'd rather have to learn Canadian than Egyptian.'

"Anyway, about the lucario. We'd known each other for about six years but we only grew friendly towards one another three years after we met. Her name was Cleo, and she was the sweetest, most caring being I've ever met. Her voice was gentile and soothing, and her smile..." Anubis began to feel another 'new' mood: Depression. He had sensed Delta's depression before, but feeling it himself was more discomforting than anger or fright. "By now she's probably with another lucario. What lucario wouldn't kill to be with her? And to think," he said plaintively, "...I was almost ready to tell her."

"You think she loved you back?"

"There was only one way to find out, but my master ruined everything."

"Hey, cheer up. If she loved you, she would never be able to go out with someone else."

Anubis sniffed and smiled. "I hope you're right." There was a moment of silence between the two before Anubis broke it. "So what about you? Any... partners?"

Delta looked around the dark, moonlit landscape suspiciously. "I haven't had much history with girls. Well, there was this one glaceon I had sex with, but I wasn't committed to her, especially when it took me days for my iced groin to recover. There hasn't really been anyone else that I've met. I'm a nomad, so that's probably why." Delta glanced around as if he was looking for something. "Although, there has been something following me... I'm not sure if it's female or not, but it's been stalking me ever since I started my journey. I don't see it often, but when I do it's usually from a distance and very brief. It's starting to scare me..."

Anubis rubbed his neck, deep in thought. He blinked and looked at Delta. "You've got a stalker, huh? Do you think it's hostile? Or do you think it has a crush on you?" He didn't wait for his friend to respond. He focused his mind and closed his eye. He sensed the outline of the environment around him. He expanded his vision more and more until he sensed the auras of three animals about thirty yards north. He could tell one of them was a luxray, a semi-common animal found in Egypt, but the other two he didn't recognize.

These three were not who he was looking for. He expanded his vision slightly more until he could sense all scenery within a forty yard radius. There was something large crouching behind a bush, its head facing the direction of himself and Delta. It was positioned south of them, on the dunes in between the sea and a vast, arid area of rocky hills. This large creature both intimidated and concerned Anubis. "Delta," Anubis spoke, his eye still shut tightly. "Does your stalker look like a giant fox with a massive array of tails?"

"Y-Yes! H-How did you—"

Anubis stood up, his eye still closed. "Follow me. Get ready to run _very_ fast."

"What are you doing?"

"Don't ask questions, just follow." Anubis quietly made his way along the beach. Delta followed, abandoning their shopping bags.

They walked until they were about ten yards away from the beast. They stood still for a moment on the beach. The beast was now in between them and the rocky hills. Anubis motioned for Delta to be silent as he slowly made his way towards the creature, crouching in the dune grass. They were nearly five yards away. That's when the beast darted for the hills. Anubis, clearly sensing the creature's retreat, shouted for Delta to run as he, himself, started sprinting after the spy. Delta had no clue what was happening but he ungrudgingly obeyed Anubis' command.

Soon, the dunes were far behind them. The beast ran, frantically trying to escape, but they were catching up. It kicked itself into overdrive and bolted throughout the large boulders, trying to lose its pursuers. Anubis kept track of the beast at all times, Delta following behind. The amount of boulders suddenly decreased, leaving the creature with no cover. Now was their chance.

"Okay, Delta!" Anubis shouted, trying not to lose too much oxygen. "Your stalker is straight up ahead, sprint and knock its block off!"

Delta realized why they were running. He sped up and bypassed Anubis, his golden rings glowing brighter as he increased speed, as if he were a wind-up flashlight. The creature could hear Delta close behind. It changed directions and headed for a large cliff.

"Bear right!" Anubis yelled and Delta obeyed, beginning to sense the presence of an entity closely in front of him.

Delta released a bright light that lit up the entire area around him. This move of his was known as Flash, an odd move for a dark type animal to know, but it was easily learned by him due to his light-emanating rings. The wolf/fox-like creature yelped as it was now clearly visible to its pursuers. Delta saw the golden, red-tipped tails flowing through the air and exerted a final burst of energy. Delta was Usain Bolt, and Anubis and the animal were some insignificant white guys.

Delta was about to bite one of the tails, but as they approached the cliff, the animal came to a sudden halt and was tackled to the ground by the umbreon. Dust shot here and there as the creature's snout was pressed against the sand and Delta tumbled over it and into a pricker bush. Anubis stopped and caught his breath.

The beast lifted its head from the sand and sneezed. It looked at the edge of the cliff. "Close call," its feminine voice clarifying that it was a girl.

Delta exited the bush, removing thorns from his coat with his teeth. "Alright," he yelled. "I want answers!"

The creature, up close, looked a lot less menacing than from afar. It resembled a fox with a thick, golden pelt. Her red eyes gleamed as she licked her paws and rubbed her snout, ignoring the umbreon. The creature was basically a large, yellow fox with nine tails and no pupils or irises. A rather _simple_ creature.

"Why have you been following me?" Delta growled. "Don't think I haven't seen you sneaking around. I've known you've been following me ever since I left Florida!"

"Florida?" Anubis uttered, surprised at how far Delta has travelled before they met.

The thing sighed, thinking up a response. "Erm, well I'm a _very_ hungry ninetales with no family or food. I saw you and your juicy, tender body. You looked pretty appealing. I wanted to wait for you to fall asleep so I could eat you, but you never sleep! I don't understand how—"

"Oh God, NT, stop bullshitting me," the cat snarled, angrily. "Why have you been stalking me?"

The ninetales giggled. "I believe the correct terminology would be 'Oh Arceus, NT, stop taurosshitting me'."

"I ain't playing, honkie!"

The ninetales frowned and took another sigh. "I've been watching you steal people's purses (and so effortlessly, too)! I, being a loner and not actually having any family or food, wanted to learn from your larcenous ways, and so I began taking note of what you've been doing and learning from you from a distance. You're like my mentor."

Anubis gritted his teeth, realizing where Delta had gotten the krokorok bag from. "You've been stealing?" He interrogated Delta, incensed.

Delta's ears drooped as he noticed Anubis' anger. "Well I-I'm a dark type! I am who I am!"

"Oh, so that's how you expect to get money for our plane tickets, huh?" Anubis spat.

Delta whimpered and looked towards the ninetales. "Well, NT, I'm very flattered that you've been learning from me, but you didn't have to _hide_ from me... Why would you hide?"

"I have my reasons," said Ninetales. It was true, she _did_ have her reasons...

Anubis further inspected her aura. Something was off about her. She seemed trustworthy, but she was a stealer. Stealers shouldn't seem so trustworthy! He could sense Delta's nervousness when he talked about the origins of the stolen purse, but this ninetales seemed... _too_ innocent. "What's your name?"

"My name is Acadia, and, like I said before, I am a ninetales. I know that you're a umbreon," she stated, referring to Delta. "I don't know what you are though," she looked Anubis up and down.

"I'm a lucario. We're not common around these parts."

"How did you find me?"

"I used my aura sight. It's a power only used by my species. It lets us assess our surroundings and is extremely useful when our visions been impaired for any reason."

Acadia noticed his bruised eye and nodded. Delta was surprised that Anubis could use his aura powers for more than just creating energy spheres. The fox looked at the pair, nervously. "I saw your bags of food... Can I - may I?"

"Well, I _guess_ you can have some food," Delta said, squinting.

The three of them left the arid wasteland and returned to the beach, only to find that their groceries were gone.

"We left them _right_ here, right?" Delta asked, concerned.

"Yeah," Anubis replied. "Someone's made off with our food. Sorry, Acadia."

"It's alright," the ninetales sadly said.

Anubis frowned, sensing her hungriness. "Don't worry, Delta can just go and _steal_ more money," he looked at the cat, disappointedly.

"Hey, I wasn't like this _before_ I evolved," Delta shot back.

They sat on the sand and watched the moon slowly rise as they introduced themselves more thoroughly to each other. All the while, Anubis was trying to further assess the fox, but was failing. As they continued to talk and even share laughs occasionally, a luxray, an absol, and a croagunk sat, thirty yards away, watching the stars and enjoying a box of Saltines.


	4. Entities

*** IV: Entities ***

Delta and Acadia made their way into the busy town of Warwick. It had been two days since Delta and Anubis had found Acadia, and since then they had left North Carolina and were now in Virginia. Acadia was allowed to join in on their adventure, but she probably wouldn't be going with them to Egypt, for obvious reasons regarding money.

It was night: The perfect time to steal. Delta had grown quite fond of the ninetales so he brought her along on his heist, hoping she could learn something from him. They stared down a small street, full of normal business men and women hurrying home from work. They watched the people patiently, waiting for someone with a low-hanging purse. Acadia yawned, lazily rubbing her eye with her paw. The lanterns above the roads shined vividly, forming thick, dark shadows underneath the people.

"I see someone," Delta announced. "Stay here and pay close attention to what I do." He walked casually down the street until he disappeared in a woman's shadow. Acadia couldn't tell what he was doing; he was practically invisible while he was hidden from the lantern lights. Acadia sighed and looked around for something more interesting to watch. Delta returned shortly after with the woman's bag in his mouth. He put it down in front of the fox. "Did you see that?"

"...Uh-huh."

"The trick is to stick with your target's shadow, gnawing through the straps of their purses while doing so. This can be especially tricky if the target wears the bag on the opposite side of where their shadow lies."

"Delta, I don't think I'll get anywhere with your strategy. First of all, my color doesn't quite conceal me from sight. And second, I'm a lot bigger than you are. Maybe I'm... just not cut out for stealing." Acadia shifted her glance from Delta and bit her lip.

"You're giving up, then?" Delta asked, disappointed. He looked to the ground sadly. "Alright, I see. Let's go back to the beach."

They left the town and walked along the beach, talking with one another.

"Why were you named after a Greek letter?" asked Acadia. "Are you Greek?"

"I was named after a type of water circuit, not a letter," Delta replied, frowning. Everyone always brought up his name. He hated talking about his origins and he hated talking about his name. "Why were you named after... ah – uh—"

"A town. Don't laugh. On my parents 'honeymoon', I guess you can call it, they travelled to a town called Acadia, Maine. They stupidly decided to name their child after the damn place. I've never been to it, though. They travelled back to Florida and had me."

"Why'd you leave Florida?"

"I had always been planning on leaving, but I wanted to go with someone. I didn't want to go alone, so when I heard you were leaving for Canada, I decided to run away and follow you."

Delta smiled at hearing this. It made him happy to hear that someone had been with him his whole journey, even though he hadn't really been aware of this. His smiled suddenly faded. "Wait, were we in the same village?"

Acadia nodded her head. Delta was astonished. He had never seen a ninetales in his village, but then again, it was a _big_ village.

"I never noticed you... I'm sorry," he apologized.

Acadia nuzzled his neck with her snout, trying to cheer him up. "Don't worry about it, I didn't see much of you either."

At that moment, a dark figure appeared in front of them. It stood on two legs and had two long, scraggly arms. "Woah," it uttered, amazed. "A ninetales... and an umbreon!" It was a young boy who looked to be around fifteen or sixteen years old. He pulled from his pocket a familiar, red and white sphere. "Pawn 2, knock 'em out," he cried, throwing the ball into the air. A burst of red light appeared and morphed into the shape of an awkward-looking bird. The red light subsided, revealing the animal's true colors. The bird had a green head and was wearing what looked like a red and white Indian cloak. The bird was a xatu. It looked at Delta and Acadia, who looked back at it blankly. "Use Confuse Ray on the ninetales!"

The xatu looked from one to the other, assessing them. A look of sorrow and shock came upon its face when it further analyzed Delta. It thought to itself for a moment, standing perfectly still, before it spoke. "You two seem very compatible with each other, but _don't_ fall in love. It's for the best." It gave Delta another glance of sorrow, before its master yelled out.

"What are you loafing around for, Pawn? Confuse Ray, _now_!"

"I'm terribly sorry about this," the xatu said before closing its eyes and steadying itself for its attack. Delta, noticing this, let loose a torrent of white energy from his forehead which hit the bird, sending it flying past its master and landing on the sand. Delta and Acadia ran from the human and up the beach. He screamed and cursed at them in anger.

After a while of running, Delta dropped the purse from his mouth and collapsed on the sand, panting. The fox stopped and walked to him.

"You alright?" she inquired, nudging his body with her paw.

"Yes," he breathed. "Aiiee... Hyper Beam takes a lot out of me."

Acadia gently bit down on the scruff of Delta's neck and swung him around, placing him on her back. She grabbed the purse and continued up the beach with the cat resting on her.

"Acadia?"

"Yes?"

"What did that xatu mean when it said we were compatible, but we _shouldn't_ fall in love?"

"I don't know, Delta," she giggled. "Those birds are known to be able to see the future."

"We're going to fall in love?"

"No," Acadia answered, nervously. "Those silly psychics are barely ever accurate when it comes to future sight."

"Oh," Delta replied dejectedly.

Acadia giggled at Delta's disappointment. "Did you want us to fall in love?"

"I'm just confused as to why it would say we _shouldn't_ fall in love. If we were compatible, then why shouldn't we fall in love? Would it end tragically?"

"The bird could have been wrong about us being compatible too, Delta."

Delta yawned and comforted himself on the ninetales' back, feeling the warmth of her fur on his.

'Damn bird,' Acadia thought, angrily. 'I'm _not_ going to fall in love with him. He's kind and cute, but I need to focus on my goals. I can't fall in love with him... and I won't.'

Once the two arrived at their camp, they noticed Anubis wasn't there, and neither were the bags of groceries they had recently bought.

"I'm sure this was where we were stationed," Delta said, leaping off Acadia. "Anubis!"

Anubis approached the two from behind, his fur soaking wet. His eye was nearly done recovering. He could almost see perfectly out of it, already. "Hey, how'd your larceny lessons go?" he asked, folding his arms.

Delta turned around and stared at Anubis quizzically. "Where are the bags? And did you go _swimming_?"

"Yes," he nodded, unfolding his arms and wringing out the water from his tail. "I had to fight off some sharpedo. Maybe I shouldn't go swimming at night again. And what do you mean 'where are the bags'?"

"The bags are gone," Delta yelled in disbelief. "You left them unattended?"

"I-I didn't know they would be st-stolen again," the lucario stuttered, ashamed of himself. 'I should have known better. This same event happened just a couple nights ago... Wait, it happened _again_?'

Delta groaned and looked at the wallet around his neck. 'Good thing I didn't leave you,' he thought. He glared at Anubis, enraged. "You say lucarios are extremely intelligent and percipient and what-not... but you're just an idiot."

Anubis didn't respond. He looked off into the distance, as if he were in a trance. Everything was silent for a moment. The ocean had calmed down significantly, now that the full moon had passed. The weak breeze blew throughout the dune grasses, producing a faint rustling sound.

The umbreon grew worried, looking at Anubis' motionless body. "It-It doesn't matter. We can always get more groceries."

Anubis broke free from his trance and looked around the dark landscape before his glance fell on Acadia. "Listen," he said to the fox. "I don't think you were the only one following us." He walked past the two to where they had situated themselves for the night. There were indents in the sand where they had placed the grocery bags. The dog took a closer look at the area. He saw other indents in the sand, but it was too dark to tell what they were. After a moment of straining his eyes, he had to resort to using his aura sight. Sure enough, there, in the sand, were paw prints. Paw prints that were not owned by anyone in his group, but they were identifiable, nonetheless. Anubis recognized the prints from syllables used in ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

The prints belonged to a luxray, and Anubis now knew exactly where it was.


	5. Trifectas

*** V: Trifectas ***

Anubis opened his eyes and walked back to Delta and Acadia. He kneeled in front of them and proclaimed silently, "There are three creatures that have been following us since Acadia joined our group. One of them is a luxray, an electric type. I don't know what the others are, though."

"And you think these are the ones stealing from us?" Delta inquired.

Anubis nodded before continuing. "We're going after them in the morning when there's enough light. They're far away; I don't think they know that we've caught on to them. They won't be going anywhere, I'd assume. We'll need to get some rest, but before then, we need to devise a battle strategy."

"We're going to _battle_ them?" Acadia asked anxiously.

"I'm afraid we need to scare them off one way or another," Anubis sighed. "Any of you know the native animals of Virginia? One of them walks on all fours and has an odd, curving horn coming from its head. The other stands on two legs, like me, but it has these large cheek-lumps... _Weird_."

"You need to give us something more than that," Delta suggested. "Those descriptions are too vague. What color are they?"

"I can't tell what color they are, exactly. My aura sight only color-codes animals based on their heat energy."

Hearing this, Acadia's ears and tails twitched slightly.

"Huh," Anubis closed his eyes and tried to analyze the appearances of the spies more thoroughly. "Okay, the horned creature has a thick coat of fur, but not on its face. It has a weird, oval-shaped growth on its forehead, and a long, sharp-looking tail. The other has three fingers and toes... That's really all I can get from it."

"Okay," Delta said. "The horn on the first one, does it curve around its entire head? It's probably an absol. The other... I don't know what the other one is."

"Yeah, an absol sounds about right," Acadia agreed. "Absols are dark types, so you should be able to take it out fairly easily, Anubis."

Delta hopped up and down ecstatically. "As for the luxray, I can take it out with my Dig!"

"I could put them to sleep and we could just eat them after," said Acadia with a sick grin.

"Yes, sleep. Let's get some sleep," Anubis advised. "We'll see who this last animal is when it's light out."

And with that, Anubis and Acadia lay themselves on the sand and slowly drifted off to sleep, leaving the lonely umbreon to watch the stars just as he did every night. After several hours of staring intently at the sky, Delta had to release his energy. He left the sleeping lucario and ninetales and wandered down the beach and back to Warwick Town. The streets were quiet and the lanterns had been put out. Delta stood in the middle of an intersection and looked through his wallet. So far, he had stolen 93 dollars. Not bad, considering he had only snatched three bags since he first obtained the wallet. Seeing as how they were only in Virginia, they should have no trouble making enough money before they get to Maine. Maybe, by then, they could even afford a ticket for Acadia...

Everything would be fine as long as Delta wasn't caught stealing. One time he had been caught by a woman, who bitched at him before releasing an anorith from its cage. The anorith hit Delta spot-on with its Signal Beam (which took Delta _days_ to recover from). It nearly killed him with its X-Scissor, but Delta fled into a sewer system and hid there like Jean-Paul Marat while police searched the town above. The Signal Beam left Delta with several blisters, rashes, and minor wounds, but luckily he never contracted dermatitis herpetiformis from the sewer, nor was he assassinated in a bath tub by Charlotte Corday afterwards, so he was thankful for that.

'That was during the day,' Delta reminded himself. 'I am a master and prodigy at theft. As long as I steal during the nighttime, I'll be fine.' His mind then drifted off to Acadia. 'She seems nice and trustworthy, not to mention she is a _sexy_ beast. _Bah_, she doesn't want me, she even said so. I don't have a crush on her, yet, so I might as well keep it that way to avoid losing her as a friend.' Delta cleaned himself with his tongue before smirking. "I wonder what it'd be like... to... _No_, _no_! I couldn't do that to her. She's almost three times my size, how would that even work? Well... I heard about that one swinub doing it with that kangaskhan back in my village... _Mm_... _No_! She said we wouldn't fall in love herself, so she's clearly not interested... Although, who said I had to be in love with her to bang her?' Delta growled and shook his head frantically, trying to remove his obscene thoughts.

He walked through the empty streets. The town was peaceful at this hour. No humans and no animals (aside from a hoothoot here and there). He roamed the streets until dawn broke and the business men and women emerged from their houses to continue their dull, everyday life at their office. Delta decided to leave before the streets were flooded with people.

Once Delta returned to their camp, he forced himself to take a quick nap until the others woke up. During his nap, he dreamed of Acadia, her tails blowing elegantly in the calm wind of his dream realm. He awoke two hours later, feeling rather revitalized. Anubis and Acadia were awake and discussing their strategy.

"You think you can manage to put _all_ of them to sleep?" Anubis asked.

"I think I'll be able to," the fox replied.

"Good, because that will save us a lot of trouble. If you put them to sleep, we run away far enough to make sure they'd be put off from following us. No one gets hurt."

"I still think we should eat them. After all, _our_ food is inside them."

"Look, Del's up," Anubis watched as Delta stood up and shook the sand from his coat. "How'd you sleep?"

Delta yawned and happily replied, "Great. I don't know why I don't do it more often. To Hell with my metabolism!"

"I'm glad we're all feeling refreshed," said Anubis, rubbing his paws together. "Delta, you'd better bury your wallet. Make sure you can remember where you hid it."

"Yessir." He obeyed, digging a hole in the sand and placing the wallet in and covering it.

Anubis took a deep breath and cracked his knuckles. He signaled Delta and Acadia to follow him as he made his way into the dunes, following the paw prints. After a minute of sneaking around in the shrubbery, their three spies came into view. Anubis positioned himself behind a thick pricker bush. The others copied him. He peered around the bush and eyed the group, several dunes away from them. "Okay, the humanoid creature is blue and its cheeks are... orange, I think."

"That must be a croagunk... or toxicroak," whispered Acadia. "They're fighting and poison types. I think you'd be best against it, Anubis."

"Oh, great. Now I have to take on two of them."

"Remember, I'll be putting them to sleep," Acadia smiled and winked.

"How should we approach them?" Delta questioned, sensing flaws in their plan.

Anubis closed his eyes and spoke. "Two of them are asleep. The absol is the only one awake."

"Figures," Delta said angrily.

"We're going to have to sneak up on it. Let's travel through the valleys in between dunes and then attack, taking it by surprise." Anubis slid down the sand of their dune and snuck around it, followed by the others.

They made their way closer and closer to the absol, occasionally having to crawl or change directions to avoid being seen. Finally, they were only ten meters from the absol, who's back was turned to them. Anubis looked at Acadia, who nodded and took lead. She placed paw after paw, trying as hard as she possibly could to not step on any plants or make any sounds. When she was close enough to attack, the absol turned its head and gawked at the ninetales.

'Damn,' Acadia thought. 'I waited too long!' She projected several pink, mystifying rings from her forehead. They drifted off in the absol's direction, but missed it as it sped to its left and shouted at the luxray and croagunk, waking them up in a panic. They soon realized they were being ambushed and got to their feet, preparing to fight. Acadia used her Hypnosis again on the pair, but they jumped to the side and dodged her attack.

Anubis closed his eyes, focusing every morsel of energy he had in him, while Delta burrowed underneath the sand, digging through the abundance of plant roots that held the sand and prevented it from collapsing on Delta. Acadia breathed fire at the absol, who backed up and slid down the dune. The luxray summoned a line of electricity from the sky, which surrounded the fox while she was preoccupied with her Flamethrower. She ceased her attack and cringed, paralyzed. The croagunk leapt towards the fox and forced its fist, engulfed in a purple light, at her side, sending her tumbling down the hill. Anubis opened his eyes and looked at the croagunk. He released his focussed energy in the form of a punch. It hit the frog in the shoulder with such force that the frog was propelled from the dune, its airborne body limp and like a rag doll. It hit the hard sand at the bottom of the hill and lay there.

The luxray emitted a bolt of lightning from its four-prong tail and guided it towards Anubis. The electricity found the metal spike on Anubis' right paw and seized it. It coursed throughout his metallic bones, leaving him numb. He fell to the ground as the luxray continued to emit its electricity, hoping Anubis would eventually melt from the inside out. Suddenly, the sand underneath it caved in and exploded as Delta jumped out and tackled the luxray, sending sand and dirt in all directions. It grunted, pausing its attack and freeing the confined lucario. While they were both midair, Delta bit the luxray's stomach and ripped from it a clump of hair and skin before they landed and tumbled down the slope.

On the other side of the dune, Acadia got to her feet and steadied herself. She began to climb the dune. She occasionally collapsed due to her paralysis, but she always managed to get up again and keep moving upwards.

The absol approached the lucario and released a Dark Pulse in all directions, killing all botanics within a ten foot radius and hitting the lucario, who tensed up and gritted his teeth, trying to endure the pain. Anubis rolled over onto his back and began to form his trademark Aura Sphere while staring at the sky. He didn't intend to hit the absol, but maybe he could impair its vision. Before the absol could make another attack, Anubis sat upright, twisting his body 180 degrees, and threw the sphere. The absol jumped to its right as if the sphere was supposed to hit it. Instead, it hit the ground and produced an explosion of sand and dust. Sand flew into the absol's eyes as it was immersed in the thick cloud.

By the time the dust had settled, Acadia had reached the peak of the dune. She saw the absol frantically wiping its eyes and writhing in pain. Once again, she projected the pink rings. This time, it was a direct hit. The absol fell to the ground and remained motionless. Acadia then aimed at the croagunk, who seemed to already be unconscious. Then she finished off with the luxray, who lay on the ground, inspecting its bleeding wound in a severely distraught manner. It's eyes rolled back in its head as its body fell limp.

Delta walked up the hill to the others, seemingly unharmed. "That absol won't sleep forever. We need to leave immediately."

"I-I can't feel my paws," Acadia said wearily.

Anubis got to his feet and tested the mobility of his body by shaking his arms and legs. "I think I can still walk," he proclaimed, gently putting his arms around the ninetales' body and picking her up. She let out a soft groan. "I'm sorry, but this will be the quickest way to get out of here," he assured her.

They walked back to their camp so Delta could dig up his wallet. They then proceeded to walk up the beach for a half an hour before Acadia announced she could be put down. Anubis willingly did so; his arms were becoming very weak from holding up the large fox. Acadia perused her mobility, making sure her paralysis had subsided. She nodded and they continued their journey, walking much faster than before.

"That didn't go as I hoped it would," Anubis stated.

"It's my fault," Acadia said plaintively. "I should have attacked it sooner."

"It's alright," Delta reassured her. "We got the job done and no one died. That's all that matters."

"They know we're going to be traveling along the beach," Anubis said, rubbing his neck. "I think we should probably head inland a bit."

Delta sighed sadly. "Farewell, ocean."

Anubis could feel Delta's sorrow about leaving the beach. 'What's up with that umbreon and the beach?' he asked himself. 'Something depressing happened in his past that's associated with the beach, but _what_? Whatever it is, it must also be associated with his name. I want to ask him about it but he always gets so despondent and glum. He has to talk about it sooner or later.'

They departed the beach and headed into the forest that stretched up along the coast, in high hopes that they would find a town with a supermarket. Hopefully, their groceries won't be stolen by anyone anymore. _Hopefully._


	6. Anew

*** VI: Anew ***

The absol was, of course, the first one of the three to awake. She shook her head, groggily, and coughed as she stood up. A wave of dizziness hit her and she toppled over onto her side. She rubbed the remaining sand from her eyes and scanned the area. The croagunk and luxray were lying at the bottom of the dune, asleep. The absol grunted and howled, "Jay, get up! Aimant!"

The two woke up, startled. They looked around, wearily. Jay, the croagunk, hopped to his feet and climbed up the dune, rubbing his shoulder. "What happened?" he asked in a somewhat annoying, nasally voice. "Did you two get them?"

"No," the absol sighed. "They're probably miles away by now..." She regarded the setting sun woefully. "What will Aimant think? She'll be angry... at _us_."

As if on cue, Aimant, the luxray, let out a shriek. Jay and the absol looked down at her. She lay on her side at the bottom of the slope in a pool of scarlet liquid. She looked at her blood, her eyes wide open and her mouth agape. The other two rushed to her and inspected her injury. On her stomach was a small gash in the flesh. "Tenebris... J-Jay," she swallowed, her body shaking in fear.

"Don't worry, Aimy," Tenebris, the absol, breathed, trying to keep calm. "It's just a little cut. You'll be _fine_, I promise. Jay," she turned to the uneasy frog. "Get her front and drape her legs over my back."

Jay nodded, grabbed the luxray's legs, lifted them up, and gently placed them on the absol's back. He then lifted her front and carried her, parallel to the absol. They walked to the beach, making sure Aimant's belly was facing upwards to prevent further blood loss. They could see Warwick Town not that far away in the distance. It'd be the best place to try and get help.

"Wh-what happened after I was knocked out?" Aimant asked, her voice faint.

"I... I couldn't take them all on," replied Tenebris, her voice shaky. "I'm so sorry, Aimy..." A tear left her eye as she bowed her head in shame.

"Don't be sorry, Bris... You did what you could." The luxray went through a brief coughing fit before saying, "Damn, this wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't lost this much blood... If-if I hadn't fallen asleep..."

"What's going to happen now?" Jay questioned apprehensively.

"I... don't know," replied Tenebris. "We don't have any food or money... Those three were the only ones sustaining us. Now, they're gone and we're alone."

"That's a shame," Aimant whispered. The absol shut her eyes, pushing out a few more tears. She whimpered silently.

Once the three had reached the city, there was only a matter of time left before the luxray would surely pass out. They looked throughout the town for the familiar, red-roofed building but they couldn't find it. Was there even a red-roofed building in this town? They stopped and laid Aimant down on the soft grass of a small park.

"Where the fuck is it!?" Tenebris howled in anger. "Does this town not have an animal-care center?"

Aimant coughed weakly. How could such a little cut lead to this – this excruciating pain? Unless that umbreon's Dig did something much more dire than the bite did. Perhaps the umbreon had broken a rib of hers. Perhaps the umbreon had broken _multiple _ribs of hers! She felt a swelling sensation inside her chest as she remembered the severe pain she felt in her underside when she was tackled by the black cat.

Tenebris sat on the grass as if she was ready to give up and lose her friend. Of course, she would never give up on Aimant. Aimant was her best friend. Jay was like their rookie, therefore he wasn't cared for as much as Tenebris and Aimant cared for each other. Tenebris had to think for a moment. 'How else can we heal her?' She tried to come up with ideas but her thoughts were always interrupted by the immense hatred she felt towards the umbreon, the ninetales, and the blue human-jackal hybrid.

Just then, a boy approached them, concerned by the state they were in. He wore the casual attire that most animal trainers wore: A baseball cap, backpack, t-shirt and jeans. He crouched down next to them, inspecting the luxray's wound.

"Ab! Absol – sol," Tenebris hissed at the trainer, bearing her teeth.

"Don't worry, Absol," said the trainer calmly as he put his backpack in front of him and took out a spray bottle. "I'll fix your friend up, good as new." The trainer, a nine year old, seemed particular nicer than the other humans. Regardless, Tenebris still growled at him as he sprayed Aimant's wound with the bottle. The liquid from the container solidified over her bite, serving as somewhat of a second skin. She sighed in relief as her bleeding ceased. Her four-prong tail waved about in the air.

Tenebris grew wide-eyed at this site. 'In all my life, I've never seen a human help out a wild animal like that,' she thought. 'Maybe... not _all_ humans are bad.' Her opinion of the young boy soon changed once he made his proposal.

"Are you three wild?" he wondered. "Maybe you should come with me. I'll feed you and you can work a bit for me. How does that sound?"

The absol frowned, disgusted. "Oh, I should have known you just wanted us to work for you. Just like all the other humans. How fucking typical! Listen, _buddy_, you just waisted your potion, because we're not going with you, and your charities won't change our mind!"

"I take that as a yes," the trainer cheered happily, pulling out a few red and white spheres from his backpack. Jay and Tenebris glared at him, astonished by his ignorance, before picking Aimant up again and slowly backing away. "I can't wait to show you your knew home!" He threw the balls towards the three.

Instinctively, the absol unleashed a dark purple globe of ghostly energy at the midair cages. It soared through the cages and into the sky. Once the cages hit the three animals, they were reduced to deflated and smoldering plastic, which rebounded and fell to the ground, melting away. The trainer watched, flabbergasted, as the three scurried away and disappeared in the distance. He threw his hat to the ground. "Stupid, stupid cunts," he shrilled in his small child voice. "I gave them my potion and they melt my balls!"

The three left the town, and shortly afterwards, Aimant announced that she should be able to walk again. She pulled her legs off the absol's back and shook free from the croagunk's grimy fingers. She stood on all fours and stabilized herself before taking a few steps forward and proclaiming, "I'm fine!"

Jay hugged her while Tenebris nuzzled up against her neck, relieved.

"You don't know how happy I am," stated the absol ecstatically. She greatly appreciated the human's kind gesture, despite how he turned out to be like all the other stereotypical scum.

"Let's not get _too _happy," advised Aimant. "The three we were following, we've lost track of them."

"Oh," Tenebris began to feel depressed again. Depressed that their only source of food had fled from them.

"How did they catch on to us?" Jay rubbed his chin.

"I don't know," Tenebris said, suddenly growing full of rage. "...But we're not giving up! We'll find them again, and we'll... we'll—"

"We'll what?" Aimant raised a brow. "They found out we've been stealing from them, and so they'll be more aware and conscious of their belongings."

"Dammit, I wish I could steal like the umbreon," said the absol admiringly. "He's a _king _when it comes to larceny!"

The luxray wagged her tail. "The umbreon isn't the only one who can steal with ease."

"Oh right, the ninetales! I can't even count how many times I saw her steal from the umbreon's purses when he and the mutt were off in the water. Which leads me to wonder: Why on Earth would she join up with the very beings of which she steals from?"

"Why not?" Jay questioned. "Befriend and gain trust from the enemy. It's a classic method that can be used in any form of subterfuge."

"Perchance, we may resort to that," suggested Aimant.

Tenebris considered this thoughtfully. "Yes... Perhaps we will. Of course, we'd need to find them first. But, what are the chances of that?"

"Relax," Aimant said, smirking. "I know a salamence who can help us."


	7. Vitality

*** VII: Vitality ***

The sun rose and shone over the quiet town of Socastee. The streets were vacant at this hour; mostly everyone was asleep in their houses and trailers. Everything was silent, until a telephone began to ring from the inside of a small, derelict house, its paint chipping and the playground structures in its yard rusting over. The phone rang three times before a large adult woman answered it.

"Hello?" She listened to the voice on the other end of the line for a moment before gasping, cupping her hand over her mouth. Her face grew pale as she looked around the house in distress. "...My baby," she managed to utter out.

About a mile away, in the heart of Socastee, sat a large, bald man at a desk in his doctor's office. The office itself was small, but the entire hospital of which it was centered in was extremely large. He spoke to the woman through his telephone. He scratched his head, confused. "Ms. Lynch, don't get too worked up, we just need the donor."

The woman on the other line let out a woeful sigh and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "You don't understand, doctor... My son's donor is... gone."

"What do you mean your donor is gone? I never actually got a chance to see this donor. Who is he or she? And... wait, how can he or she be gone?"

"He's not dead, doctor."

Hearing this, the doctor frowned, thinking he had heard wrong. "Ms. Lynch, you are aware that this transplant will kill the donor if _he_ is alive?"

"Yes, we're aware, he's the only one in the town who has the same blood type and tissue type as my son. Obviously, we've checked the mortuary as well, but with no luck."

"Okay, but if he's in his prime and he seems fit enough to... you know, live longer, you shouldn't carry through with this. You sure you can't find someone else who's _already_ dead? I mean – has he even agreed to this?"

"Doctor, he's an animal. He and the rest of his species are known to have the greatest similarity in tissue cell structure as us than any other animal. And in addition to that, his species also has a high chance of being born with blood type AB-. Doctor, I know it's wrong, but it's the only way. _Please_..." The woman burst into tears, drawing attention from her son, who had just woken up.

"An... animal?" he questioned, utterly baffled. 'We can't use an animal as a donor, that's impossible, right?' He cleared his throat before continuing. "Now, now, Ms. Lynch, your son could always get liver dialysis."

"We can't afford that!"

The doctor sighed and shook his head. "Then... you have to find the donor. And soon. Your son's liver could fail any minute. In the mean time, make sure he continues his medication, and continue to check his cornea."

"Thank you, doctor..." The woman hung up the phone and wept.

Her son came over and put his hand on her shoulder. "Who died?"

The woman raised her head. 'You did,' she thought before burying her head in her hands, sobbing.

The boy shrugged and walked to the couch. He sat down and waited for his mother to stop crying. When she was finally done, she walked over to her son and sat down next to him.

"Listen," she sniffed. "That was the doctor. He says your Cirrhosis is getting rapidly worse, and we need your pet soon."

The man's eyes widened as he stood up, in shock. "_Now_? Why _now_? He _just_ ran away!"

The woman grabbed his arm tightly. "We need to find him. Whatever it takes, we need to find him."

The man nodded and proceeded to the car. Inside him, a little flame flickered. He was furious, more than when his pet initially escaped. He had dug through the entire sandbox, looking for the red and white sphere, the day before. He spent the rest of that day in a horrible fit, and was still pretty pissed about it when he woke up that morning, but now he was infuriated beyond belief... How could his pet even escape the sandbox? He was trapped inside his cage! 'What stupid timing! That bastard is going to get what's coming to him.'

The man had been undergoing extreme fatigue lately, and his weight had dropped 40 pounds since he had been diagnosed with Cirrhosis, but neither weakened him; he was a tough man and felt he didn't need to live in a hospital. He could tough anything out (after all, he was an American, _hell yeah_). He had a few spots and rashes, but his clothing concealed those. Lately, his nails had been losing color, but other than that, his physical features showed no sign of disease.

He entered the garage and got in his jeep. His mother followed, but she didn't get in.

"I'm going to form a search party. I'll take David's car." She smiled weakly, a tear escaping her eye, and waved at her son. "Good luck."

The man pulled the car out and headed into town. He asked various people if they had seen a blue, humanoid dog, but with no luck. After he had driven around most of the town, he stopped outside of the '_South Carolina, Socastee City Train Station_'. a horrid thought crept into his mind. 'He could be states away. This is useless.' He pulled into the parking lot and pondered for several minutes before exiting his car and entering the station. He walked up to a woman sitting in a booth. He spoke through the small hole in the glass of the booth. "Have ya seen a blue walking mutt in here recently? He got long ears and spikes."

"Huh, I don't think I have, I'm sorry, sir."

"Can I see your surveillance footage, then?"

The woman rubbed her chin and considered it. "Your pets run away? I'll talk with the board of security. Give me a moment, please." She picked up a phone and pressed a single button, presumably the speed dial for the board of security. "Hello, this is Jane... Yes, well a young man here's lost his pet, and he wants to see the surveillance footage... Don't ask _me_ how an animal would get on the train, I'm not a regulator... Alright, thank you." She hung up and smiled at the man before gesturing for him to come inside the booth.

Once he had managed to get passed the small booth door, he kneeled down and watched the woman as she turned on a small television and ejected a video cassette from inside it. "When did you lose your pet?"

"Can I just see all footage from the 25th 'till now?" He asked impatiently. "Starting with the 25th."

The woman nodded and pulled a cassette labeled '_August 25, 12_' from a shelf. She inserted the tape and fast-forwarded it. The 25th was when the man had buried the pet. Luckily, for the sake of conserving precious time, that was when the umbreon rescued him. By the end of the tape, a black cat zipped in and out of the station. "What was that?" The woman paused the tape, rewound it, and slowed it to its normal speed. The cat entered the station and investigated the train-time board, a visible red and white ball between its teeth.

The man gasped as he saw the ball. 'That umbreon...' The woman frowned and fast-forwarded again until it reappeared in the station. It boarded a train heading north, the ball still in its mouth.

"That's unusual," the woman stated. "Animals shouldn't be on the trains or even _in_ the train station."

"Where was that train heading?" the man asked.

The woman rewound the footage until the train was just arriving. She paused when the train immediately emerges from around the corner. On the front of the train was an electronic screen reading '_Jubilee, North Carolina_'.

The man left the station without even thanking the woman. He got in his jeep and drove home. He collected his important belongings and went back to his car. He drove off, leaving Socastee behind him. A wicked grin appeared on his face. He chuckled silently. His laughs soon grew louder, until he was laughing _hysterically_.


	8. Clairvoyance

*** VIII: Clairvoyance ***

The man with Cirrhosis, Mr. Lynch, parked his jeep in a parking lot next to the Jubilee Train Station. He opened the door and got out, eyeing the station. As he stood there, he realized that he didn't actually know what he was going to do now. He scratched at a rash, concealed by his t-shirt, and thought to himself. 'If that umbreon left Socastee on the 25th, that would have given it about a week to travel. It could still be states away from here, too. Dammit, there's no way I can find them.'

Not too far from the baffled scruff were a pair of animals, casually having a stroll threw the forest and talking to one another.

"That beach is so peaceful and undisturbed," stated one of the animals in a soft, feminine voice, her organic gown being blown by the breeze as she appeared to hover over the ground.

"I _would_ agree, but I bet it'd be much more peaceful at nighttime, without the overwhelming abundance of krabby," the other animal replied, its voice low and wise, implying that it was a male. He stroked one of his two yellow tuffs growing from his snout.

"Aw, but the krabby are cute."

"Huh? They're _cute_?"

The female giggled, looking the yellow animal in the eyes. "Yeah, but _you're_ cuter." She leaned over and kissed him gently as they continued walking/hovering. The female retracted from the kiss and looked forward, noticing they were entering a parking lot. "Oh, you want to head through the town?"

"Why not?" The yellow one happily answered. As the two of them entered the parking lot, they were immediately noticed by Mr. Lynch. He ducked and hid behind a car parked next to his. He took a closer at them and, with a sick grin, realized what type of animal they were: A gardevoir and an alakazam.

Both psychic animals.

The man watched the two make their way through the car park. He was now reassured that he would find the umbreon. With a psychic-type animal by his side, he can't possibly fail. Without hesitation, he quietly got into his car and began to devise a plan. 'I remember when I caught Blue Boy,' the man thought to himself. 'I had to weaken him myself before I caught him. _Damn_, this'd be a lot easier if I had him right now. I can't take both of them on or they'd use their tele-kinetocs on me...' The man rubbed the stubble on his chin before turning on the jeep and shifted it in drive, grinning. He drove from his spot and turned the car 90 degrees so that it faced the two animals, who were now twenty meters away. They turned around and glanced at the car, before looking away and continuing.

"That's right, just keep walking," said the man, his face distorted by sick happiness and evil. 'Which one should I take? I guess I should probably get rid of the stronger lookin' one: The more masculine one. The other girly creature wouldn't stand a chance against me, in all my buff, masculine glory!' The man laughed hysterically and floored the gas pedal, getting attention from the animals. He turned the wheel slightly, aiming for the alakazam, who didn't get a chance to register what was happening. With a loud thump, the alakazam was forced into the air from the impact of the car. The gardevoir, who fortunately wasn't hit, looked up at her friend in horror as his body twisted through the air as the jeep motored underneath him. The jeep came to a sudden halt as the alakazam hit the asphalt. The man exited the vehicle after grabbing a red and white sphere from the glove compartment. He approached the gardevoir, whose gaze remained on the alakazam's crumpled body. She couldn't move or make noise. Her body refused to move, her glance refused to leave her friend. The man smiled, buried the ball in his pocket, and raised his hands. "Just you and me."

The animal left her trance as a pair of large arms wrapped around her neck and chest, preventing her arms from moving. She screamed, not at the evil arms enveloping her, but at her friend, who continued to lay on the asphalt. The man carried the hysterical animal to his car and shoved her head onto its hood over and over again until she stopped struggling. He dropped her onto the ground. Her blood stained the hood and the concrete underneath. She lay there, still conscious, but paralyzed from fright and consternation.

Mr. Lynch then proceeded to take from his pocket the red and white ball, dropping it onto the gardevoir. In a burst of red radiance, she dissipated into thin air. Lynch opened the car's back door and leaned inside, reaching for a large duffel bag. He pulled the bag closer to him on the seat and searched through its contents. Finally, he pulled out a spray bottle. He closed the door and walked over to the alakazam. He picked it up by its legs and dragged it to a random pickup truck, where he threw the body into the open cargo bed, hiding it from site.

He returned to the ball lying on the ground. He picked it up and released the gardevoir, who appeared in front of him, continuing to lay on the asphalt. He knelt over her and sprayed her with the potion. The cuts on her forehead slowly began to heal as she let out a silent sigh. He helped her up until she was hovering like she normally would. She didn't look into her trainer's eyes. Tears started to form around the corners of hers as she whimpered.

"Hello, Gardevoir," Mr. Lynch greeted her in his gruff voice. "I'm your trainer now, isn't that great?"

"W-why did you kill him?" the animal's shaky voice echoed throughout Lynch's head, via telepathy.

"Who?"

"My friend... The one you p-put in the pickup truck over there." She refused to look at her trainer, tears dripping from her eyes. Her trainer smiled. She had made a good first impression on him.

"Listen ta me, sweety," he said, his voice artificially soothing. "An umbreon was in that train station a couple of weeks ago. Can you help me find him?"

The gardevoir didn't want to answer him, but it was her duty as his pet to obey him, no matter how much she disliked the trainer. No matter how much the trainer disdained or treated her poorly. She sobbed, facing the station and closing her eyes. "T-There was an umbreon who came here... and ran around in circles... before h-heading off that w-way." She pointed towards the forest, weeping.

Lynch grinned excitedly. "And where did it go _exactly_?"

"To the b-bea-bea..." She couldn't finish her sentence, for she was reminded of how she and her friend were just at the beach... having a great time together.

Lynch grew impatient and yelled, "Spit it out!"

"To the b-beach." She wiped her eyes and clawed at her face in distress. "A-And then it headed north..."

'So, that little bastard's been headin' up the coast, huh?' he wondered, leaning against the car for a moment. "Alright, that's enough," he said, sucking the animal back into her cage. He got back into his car and left Jubilee, grinning wickedly.

The next day, Delta returned to Anubis and Acadia with yet another purse in his mouth. He rested it on the soft forest moss, that of which inundated practically the entire forest. It had been over two weeks since they had started their journey. They had travelled as much as possible every day, only stopping to sleep during the night. It had been two days since they had fought the luxray, absol, and the croagunk, and they luckily hadn't seen them since. They didn't know it, but they had already crossed to border and were in Maryland, 'the Corphish State'. Anubis' eye had fully recovered by now, along with his bruises, which had been veiled by his fur anyway.

Delta removed the money from the purse's wallet and transported it to his own. "44 dollars plus 190... _Wait_. I had more than 190 dollars before." Delta bit his lip, confused. "_Did_ I have 190 dollars?"

Anubis, who was leaning against a mossy tree, shrugged insouciantly while Acadia looked away.

"Maybe I did," Delta said, waving it off and placing the last of the money in his wallet. "Hmph, I'm not making as much as I hoped I'd be making. What state are we in? Still Virginia? I'm going to make another trip to the town. Anubis, take my wallet."

"Why?"

"It flops around a lot and is annoying. You didn't tie it well."

Anubis crossed his arms. "Whatever."

Delta dropped it in front of him and departed, leaving Anubis alone with Acadia. After the black cat was out of sight, Anubis turned to Acadia and squinted.

"What are you doing?" the ninetales asked nervously.

"There's something that's not right about you," Anubis replied, his tail raising from the ground. "It's like you're locking your mind from me, hiding your thoughts. As impressive as it is, it's been greatly annoying me, lately."

"What're you talking about?" Acadia's voice trembled.

"Every time I sense your emotions, you're _always_ happy. _Just_ happy, nothing else."

Acadia's tails wagged with energy. "Well, maybe I'm just a happy girl! Leave me alone!"

"Hm..." Anubis scratched his muzzle, still squinting. "I don't actually recall ever telling you or Delta that I could sense emotions as well as surroundings. You're not surprised by this?"

The ninetales paused and held her breath. Her eyes rapidly moved from Anubis to the ground. "...I guess it didn't strike me as unusual. I'm not surprised you can use your abilities for more than just sensing your surroundings." She smiled, but she grew concerned. "What's up with _you_?"

"Nothing," he answered, lying back against the tree and relaxing. Other thoughts, thoughts about Delta, flooded his mind. What happened to him back in Florida? Why was he named _Delta_? _Who was Delta_? 'I need to ask him. I've told him about my past, it's only fair for him to tell me about his.' He looked over to Acadia, who was curled up in a ball, her eyes closed shut and her tails covering her body like a blanket. Anubis decided to try and get some rest, too. It was still early, but the group had traveled for ages and they were all exhausted.

Meanwhile, Mr. Lynch drove wildly down the thruway. He had stopped at a hotel in North Carolina the night before, and had continued his search that morning, occasionally driving to the beach to have his gardevoir reluctantly give him information about the umbreon, or confirm that they were still on the right trail.

He had crossed the border into Virginia six or so hours ago. He was close to Maryland by now. He pulled off the thruway and headed for the beach to make sure he hadn't overshot yet. Once he got there, he released the animal, who looked around, sadly, before shaking her head. "Huh? The trails gone cold?" He cursed to himself before trapping the animal again. He'd have to backtrack to where the umbreon is or to where the umbreon changed its course of direction. He'd have to wait until the morning. He drove to the nearest hotel. Before he got out of his car, though, an idea came to his mind. He had realized it had been a while since he had last 'been' with a woman. 'Hell, this could be my last time.' He grinned and picked up the gardevoir's cage and brought it inside with him to the hotel with sickly erotic intentions.

This proved to be a bad idea.

Almost an hour later, the gardevoir burst through the glass of their hotel room's window and dropped two stories, landing hard on the ground. Her trainer ran to the window with his pants half-down and screamed at her as she managed to get up and slowly hover away, holding her arm. He ran from the window and out the room. The gardevoir cried fiercely as she tried to get away from the hotel. She could obey the trainer's commands up to a point. When he forced himself upon her just then, that was where he had crossed the line. Her heart belonged to the alakazam, not to her abusive trainer. Even if her partner was dead, she wouldn't ever be able to love or be _intimate_ with anyone else, even if it meant never loving again. After the tragedy she had suffered through, the tragedy of losing someone she had known for several years and had loved, she would _never_ be able to love without the feeling that her heart would be broken all over again.

She fled into the woods across the road from the hotel. It was nighttime, so the darkness consumed her and hid her from Mr. Lynch as he ran across the road, pursuing her while struggling to keep his pants up. He ran through the forest, searching for her. He ran in circles until he emerged from the shrubbery and found himself back at the hotel. He rubbed his temples and growled to himself as he stood in the middle of the desolate road. He'd just have to find another psychic animal to pursue the cat with. But, could he find one just as easily as he had the day before? He punched the air in anger as people exited the hotel to see what all the commotion was about. He walked to his jeep, figuring he could just drive away and sleep in the car for the night, but he couldn't open it; he had left his keys in the hotel. He snarled, punching the car. He then made his way past all the gawking people and into the hotel to retrieve his keys.

He spent the rest of that night lying in his car, parked on the side of the thruway, unable to sleep. He was too angry to fall asleep. That, and he was also afraid that he would never be able to find the umbreon. He was afraid that he wouldn't be able to survive for any longer.


	9. Waterways

*** IX: Waterways ***

For the first day in over a week, the sun was nowhere to be found amidst the thick clouds that had drifted from the Atlantic. The sky was gray and dull. A few drops of water landed on the sand here and there. The waves tumbled gently over the beach, producing their usual peacefully nautical sounds.

The luxray, the absol, and the croagunk rested on the beach. They were starving; it had been two days since they had eaten a full meal, and they were growing weaker and weaker. They had been situated in the same area in Virginia since the ordeal with the umbreon's gang running away. They sat on a dune and watched the ocean. They jumped simultaneously when a loud roar erupted in their ears. They averted their glance to the sky as a large red and teal dragon burst through the clouds and made its way to the shore. It landed, sending sand flying in all directions. It grunted, flapping its red wings and eyeing the three.

The annoyed luxray got up and stumbled towards the beast. "We waited _two_ days," she said weakly. "Why would you make us wait this long?" She was angry, but her lack of energy masked this.

"I'm terribly sorry, Aimy," the dragon's voice was loud and deep. "I live in Tennessee, dear. I left as soon as I got your call. You should be thankful that my trainer didn't suppress me from coming here."

Aimant shuddered angrily, remembering the horribly frustrating time she had trying to dial his house's number into a Warwick Town pay phone, let alone trying to find a quarter for it. "It still shouldn't have taken you _two_ days. _Two_ days!"

"Just get on my back and stop complaining."

The three obeyed and climbed on top of the salamence's back, exerting a great deal of their energy. Once they were on, the salamence leapt from the ground, causing another sand explosion, and soared up the beach. Tenebris and Jay were not too keen on the flight. However, Aimant had flown on her friend's back ever since they first met. Therefore, she was used to it, and she quite enjoyed it.

"So, you're looking for an umbreon?" The dragon tilted its head to the side so that it could see its passengers.

"Yes," replied Aimant.

"I'm not sure me flying you three around is going to help you find them."

"Maybe if you got here sooner, we would have probably already found them by now," replied Aimant feebly.

The dragon sighed and straighten his head out. "There's no chance we could find the umbreon. Although, there are animals who are very useful when it comes to tracking down other animals. I had known ahead of time that we would never be able to find a certain animal in such a big world."

"So?" The luxray interrupted. "Are you talking about psychic animals?"

"Indeed. I tried looking for them along the way, but with no luck. They're fairly rare along the east coast. Keep an eye out for any, because if we can't find your – er – _source of food_, you three will have to come home with me."

"And live with a trainer?" Aimant gasped. "Never will I ever live... with... uhnunnhn..."

The dragon frowned, a hint of sadness in its eyes. "We never see each other any more, Aimy. I've missed you so much."

"It's because your trainer separated us. Your trainer is fowl, just like the rest. I'm sorry, honey, but I'm not about to throw my life away. When you finally decide to leave your trainer, we can hang out like we always used to."

"I can't leave her," the dragon grimaced. "I can't leave my master. No."

The luxray rolled her eyes and curled up on its back, searching for a psychic aide. Ten minutes later, the salamence gasped and landed on the sand, accidentally throwing its three passengers from its back and onto the ground. It stared off up the beach, looking at something. Something white and green was heading south towards them.

"Could it be?" The salamence squinted its eyes. "Already?"

The three animals got up from the sand and glared at the dragon, who didn't notice them. It kept its glance on the green and white humanoid creature. The three shifted their glance from the dragon and onto the creature as well. It held its arm and hovered slightly above the sand.

Aimant gaped at it. She couldn't believe their luck. They had found a psychic animal _already_! A gardevoir. The four stood still as the gadevoir approached them. She looked up at them, then continued hovering on, her face expressionless. Aimant walked to her. "Excuse me, are you alright?" She had noticed the animal clutching her arm tightly.

"I'm fine," she replied, not slowing down at all. Her voice was faint, as if she hadn't eaten in two days as well.

Aimant walked in front of the gardevoir, who stopped and stared blankly at her. "We need your help, please. We're not doing too good, and we need to find an animal. Can you help us, please?"

The gardevoir frowned, assessing the luxray. "You want to find an umbreon?"

Aimant gawked at her.

"Ironic. I bumped into someone the other day who wanted to find the same umbreon. What's the big deal with this animal, huh?"

Aimant nodded. "How did you know?"

The white and green humanoid shook her head, sighing. "You want to steal from the umbreon. Shame on you. I would never help delinquents like you."

"B-but we're not," the luxray pleaded. "We steal from them because we have to or else we'd starve! We all grew up with different, poverty-stricken families, and that's the only thing we can do to stay alive!"

The gardevoir could feel that what the luxray was saying was true. She could see her mind and her memories: Memories of her horrible life back when she was a little shinx. When she was with her temporary trainer, she had discerned his ambitions, ambitions of which were to kill the umbreon's friend and harvest its liver. Regardless of how these animals were stealing from the umbreon, at least they weren't _killing_ anyone. She sighed and accepted. "I'll help you find the umbreon. But I want the large, winged one to fly me back to North Carolina when we're done."

"I guess I could do that," said the salamence.

"Oh thank you!" Aimant said, elated. "You don't know how much we appreciate this."

"Let's just find the stupid thing so I can get back home." The gardevoir's attitude suggested that she had been through a lot recently.

The four animals struggled back onto the dragon's back. The dragon then leapt into the air and flew along the beach.

They flew for another ten minutes before the gardevoir called to the salamence. "Go left! Into the forest!"

The salamence increased its distance from the ground and changed direction. It flew above the treetops, letting the gardevoir guide it.

Meanwhile, Anubis pushed Delta and Acadia around in a shopping cart throughout the aisles of a supermarket. Acadia laughed excitedly. She had never ridden in a cart before, unlike Delta who had had Anubis push him almost every time they went to a market. Normally, she would walk beside the lucario and mock the black cat's immaturity. But nothing's wrong with being immature once in a while.

The ninetales turned to Delta and smiled. She then turned to Anubis. "You know, I've been following you two for a while now, yet I don't even know where you're going."

"We're on a quest to find the Tower of Learning," Delta said as he scratched his neck with his hind leg. Acadia glanced briefly at Delta's groin before looking away, embarrassed.

"We're not looking for that," Anubis groaned. "We're actually on our way to Maine."

"I knew that, already. What're you gonna do when you get there?"

'_Sheesh_,' thought the lucario. 'If I tell her, is she going to try and come with us?' He decided to direct his telepathy at Delta. '_Delta, can you hear me?_'

Delta stopped scratching himself and looked at Anubis. 'His voice was... really echoey just then. What the heck?'

'_Yes, it is. I'm using telepathy. Should we tell Acadia about the plane tickets? Just think like you normally would. I can understand it._'

'Wow, you are full of surprises, Anubis.'

Acadia waited for Anubis to answer her question, but he just kept pushing the cart. He looked as though he was concentrating really hard on something. "Anubis? Is something wrong?"

'I've only collected about 200 dollars since we started. I don't know how we're even going to afford a plane ticket for one of us at this rate.'

'_You've stolen 100 dollars since this morning? If you keep that up, we can afford our plane tickets, surely._'

'Actually, I stole that all last night. I can't steal when it's light out, what are you nuts?'

'_I'm going to tell her we're going to Egypt, but that she can't come. Okay?_'

'No! I want her to come! I can do this. I can steal enough.'

Acadia was growing impatient, waiting for Anubis to respond. "Hey, hey!"

Anubis cleared his throat and spoke. "Delta and I are going to Maine, and from there we are getting on a plane to Egypt."

Acadia was somewhat heartbroken. So that was why Delta was collecting money. Why didn't they tell her about this sooner? They obviously didn't want her to come with them. 'Whatever. I couldn't go with them anyway.' The ninetales bowed her head and watched the shelves pass by as Anubis pushed her.

Anubis, for once, felt an emotion other than happiness emanate from Acadia: Depression.

Delta didn't need aura senses to notice the fox was glum. "Don't worry, NT, I can get enough money to afford you a plane ride, too! I can get enough money..."

Anubis shook his head. "Delta—"

"I can get enough money!"

Acadia looked into Delta's warm, scarlet eyes. 'This is someone who cares about me,' she thought to herself. 'This is someone who would spend his time getting money... money to spend on _me_. He cares about me... and I've been stealing from him..." She tore her gaze from Delta and bowed again, disgusted in herself. 'Why do I steal from them when they sustain me at no cost?' She raised her head and examined her surroundings: The supermarket. 'Well... because I need money for when they leave. There's no way I can go with them to Egypt. My plan was to steal from them until I had made enough money to afford my own small shelter in the north. But... Delta...'

The ninetales had been silent for what seemed like an eternity.

Anubis scratched his muzzle, wondering what she was thinking about. He focused on her and tried to listen to her thoughts, but he was too late; her mind had gone blank. 'How does she do that?' Reading Acadia's emotions was like reading a Shakespearian novel. No one had ever been able to simply_ hide_ their mind from Anubis. He shook his head, sighing, and proceeded to the checkout. After he had payed the cashier (with the right amount of money this time), he left the supermarket and parked the cart outside with the others. Delta and Acadia hopped out, both carrying plastic bags in their mouth.

On the brick wall of the market, something caught Anubis' eye. Paste onto the bricks was a poster of an upcoming event; the _Maryland Corphish Catching Contest_. "Huh. Looks like we're in Maryland."

"What?" Delta uttered in disbelief. "Already? Then that means Delaware is most likely just around the corner! How have we come this far already?"

"I don't know," replied Anubis. "You need to go on a stealing spree tonight."

"Maybe I should rob a bank," Delta teased. Anubis crossed his arms, annoyed.

Sure enough, not much later, after they had eaten, did they cross the border and into Delaware. About seven hours later, they crossed _another_ border and were now stationed for the night in a New Jersey forest.

Delta left the others alone in their forest to find a town to devastate. Once he had managed to swipe two purses, he left the town to return to his friends, carrying them in his mouth. Before he got to their temporary quarters, though, he heard a rustling in some shrubbery nearby. He turned to see Acadia walk from the bushes towards him. He placed the bags onto the fallen leaves of the woods and looked at the ninetales, confused. "Acadia? Hey..."

"Hey," she greeted him with a warm smile and sat in front of him. "I'm sorry," she sighed. "I don't think I'll be going with you or Anubis to Egypt. I've been planning on living by myself, once I traveled far enough north."

Delta's ears lowered upon hearing this. He sat down on the leaves, feeling rather dejected. "Oh," was all he could say.

It was obvious to Acadia that her response depressed him. This made her feel depressed as well, but at the same time she was somewhat happy to know Delta felt troubled because of their limited time together.

Delta cared for her, and she's been betraying him in return.

The fox shifted closer to Delta and wrapped her tails around him. Delta blushed slightly. Their body size contrast _was_ actually quite large. Delta looked up and gazed into the fox's ruby eyes. The fox gazed back into Delta's scarlet eyes. "Delta, let's just enjoy the time we have together."

The umbreon nodded and leaned against Acadia, letting her tails warm his body like a blanket. The forest surrounded them, its canopy serving as a barrier to keep what little light the moon produced from behind the clouds away from the forest floor. Delta's golden rings light the area enough for the both of them to see without having to strain their eyes. The forest, in this light, was eerie, yet peaceful and oddly... _romantic_. The animals sat there in the midst of it all, letting the nature absorb into and soothe their minds.

"Delta?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry if this topic is really personal to you, and you don't have to answer me, but... what happened to you back in Florida?"

Delta watched the landscape, wondering whether or not he should tell her. He might as well; they had known each other for a week now. That may seem like little, but they had literally spent the _entire_ week together. Delta finally sighed and gave in. "...When I hatched from my shell, little did I realize I was born into an extremely wealthy family, and for this, I was extremely lucky. My father, a glaceon, and my mother, a leafeon, both cared for me and loved me very much. I was so grateful to be this lucky; other animals around my – _our_ hometown grew up with poor families and lived their lives of poverty while I spent every day eating food to my heart's content.

"Obviously, when I hatched I was an eevee. My parents named me Delta because they wanted me to evolve into a vaporeon. They got the idea from when they first met on St. Vincent Island, the Apalachicola River Delta. One day they took me there and told me of how they met. As enthralled as I was with their story, I was more focused on the ocean. Hah – the ocean was, and is, heaven to me! I could only imagine what It'd be like to be a vaporeon and be one with the sea, being able to breathe the water and swim in it forever. But... nothing gold can stay...

"Several years later, my mother died of hypothermia. My father had... unintentionally killed his wife. Just when I had lost all hope in this world, I met a female glaceon and, soon enough, I fell for her. It was the only love I had ever experienced, and I was happy once again. She was kind and caring... but her acts of kindness were all _feigned_! I impregnated her and, although _I_ was happy with this, she was furious. I found out later that she had been using me for my money. She didn't love me, she loved my wealth, and she certainly did not want my child. She left me and no longer took my money, and not only had my heart been smashed, but I never actually got a chance to meet my child.

"As for my father, he went through a state of severe depression and guilt for a long time, until he grew weak and dull. Before he knew it, he was an empty shell who never expressed his emotions. Eventually, without prior notice, he left me and I never saw him again. He took most of the money, but left me with just enough to make a living. I no longer wanted to stay in the house, or in Florida, so I left and became a nomad. I thought to myself that one day, I would return to Florida as a vaporeon, and I would live on St. Vincent Island. Alas, things didn't work out as I had wanted.

"One day I was nearing the border of Georgia, and was ambushed by dark type hoodlums. I had been doing fine with the money I was provided, but after the attack, I was left with nothing. Weakened from their brutal beatings, I found shelter in a nearby cave. Unfortunately for me, the inside of the cave was coated in Moon Stone crystals, and before I knew it, my fate had changed and I was an umbreon. Luckily, though, the evolution healed my shattered bones. I may have died if I hadn't evolved.

"Afterwards, I decided to teach myself how to steal. It was an act of revenge towards the muggers who stole my money. Even though I never saw them again, I still took out my anger on humans by stealing their money. One week later, I rescued Anubis, and a week after that – well, here I am." Delta looked up towards Acadia.

She was crying. "Oh, Delta," she breathed. "I'm so sorry..." She leaned over and buried her face in Delta's neck, sobbing.

The umbreon, surprised by Acadia's sympathy, nuzzled his head against hers affectionately. The story was awfully depressing for Acadia, but the part that got her the most was the part with the glaceon. She _was_ that glaceon. They resembled each other. She wept on Delta's shoulder, disgusted by her own ways and disgusted with herself. She didn't need to steal from him, especially when he was currently supplying her with everything she needed! She had made a mistake.

Acadia mentally vowed to never steal money from Delta again. At that moment, she let herself become infatuated with Delta, despite their size and species difference. She would have fallen in love with him a lot sooner, but her mission restrained that. "Delta," she sniffed, her face still in his shoulder. "I want you to know that I care about you and that you won't suffer through any more hard times from now on."

Delta smiled and let Acadia cry until she couldn't anymore.


	10. Annex

*** X: Annex ***

Anubis, Delta, and Acadia emerged from the woods and took their first steps back onto the sand of the east coast. Delta was overjoyed by the touch of sand and the ocean breeze. He ran and tumbled onto the sand, ecstatically laughing. He rolled around before he finally got up, grinning.

"You sure are happy to be back to the ocean," Anubis examined.

"Hell yeah, I am!" exclaimed the umbreon, shaking sand from his fur.

Acadia walked towards the beach, leaving Anubis and Delta. She was about to get into the water when she remembered the money she had stolen. She backed away and twisted her head around to see her tails. In between the thick, fur-patted bases of her tails was where she had been hiding her money this entire time. She felt between her tails with her nose, making sure the money hadn't gotten wet. 'I haven't swam in the ocean for a while. This damn, stolen money...' She walked out of the water, her tails in the air, and sat on the dryer sand, sighing sadly. 'I shouldn't swim in water anyway. It's not good for types like me.'

The lucario and the umbreon watched her from where they stood.

"She was about to get in the water, wasn't she?" Anubis asked.

"Acadia's a fire type animal. She _can't_ go in water."

"Well, she just got her paws wet. She's... so strange." Anubis averted his gaze from Acadia to Delta. "She left me in the forest last night to go talk with you. What'd she say?"

"She asked me what had happened to me before I started my journey."

"Oh," Anubis scratched at his ear. "What did you say?"

"I told her," Delta replied, frowning.

Anubis' eyes grew wide. "You told _her_ but you never told _me_?" Anubis folded his arms angrily. He felt somewhat jealous (another 'new' emotion).

Delta bit his lip and frantically shook his head before whispering, "I love her, Anubis... She asked me and I couldn't _not_ tell her. She could get _anything_ out of me if she asked, what with her kind nature and sexy beastiness..."

Anubis' frown suddenly transformed to a smile. "I knew that already, Delta," he laughed. "It's obvious."

"It is?" Delta's eyes dilated as he bit his paw.

"Well, no. I mean I can tell from your aura."

Delta let out a sigh of relief. His ears perked up as an idea came to his mind. "Do you know if-if she... loves—"

"No. I can't read her mind. I don't know why, but she's able to keep her thoughts from me."

Delta shrugged and lay on the ground. Feeling the warmth from the sand was like feeling the warmth from Acadia's fur. He waited a moment before saying, "You want to know about my past, then?"

Anubis gazed forward at the ninetales, deep in thought. "Are you _okay_ with talking about it?"

"It doesn't bother me that much, _yeesh_."

Delta told Anubis the same story he had told Acadia the night before. Anubis didn't cry, though. There was no reason for him to. Sure, the story had upset him, but he was happy he finally had gotten closure.

He gave the umbreon a brief pat on the head before standing up and stretching. "I'm sorry that things didn't work out for you, Delta," he said sincerely. "I'm sorry about your parents, too."

"Eh, everyone has to go at one point," Delta responded, getting up and stretching as well. "I've had a tough life, yeah, but at least I wasn't brutally beaten all the time..."

Anubis ignored his comment. "Let's continue up the beach. We still have some daylight."

They collected Acadia and set off up the beach. They travelled about three miles until a loud roar caught their attention. They turned around and saw a large salamence land on the beach twenty meters from them. Three animals slid off the dragon and walked weekly towards the trio. There was another passenger, an odd, green and white being, but she stayed on its back. Anubis, Delta, and Acadia didn't recognize her nor the dragon, but to their disbelief, they _did_ recognize the luxray, absol, and croagunk who stumbled towards them.

Acadia, a look of horror plastered upon her face, cautiously walked forward and yelled, "What do _you _three want? Leave us alone!"

Anubis entered a fighting stance while Delta growled intimidatingly, his back perked up and his fur standing on end. They were outnumbered, and they were up against a damn dragon!

"Relax," ordered Aimant feebly. "We're sorry for what we have done, but we did it because we had to, or else we'd starve."

"Get a job, scum!" Delta burst out.

Anubis lowered his fist and stared blankly at the luxray. He realized he had never actually assessed her feelings. The emotions that voided from her then were ones of extreme distress. She had been through a lot in her past. Not only her, but the rest of her teammates. All her teammates! The luxray, absol, and croagunk had no families and lived a life of poverty. The dragon had been recently caught by a trainer and was separated from its best friend, the luxray. The green and white creature... watched her lover die before she was caught and nearly raped. Anubis felt a sudden pang of guilt, but something was still sketchy about the group. "Luxray, why didn't you three just ask to join us?"

"Who would want to feed a bunch of filthy tramps like us?" Aimant replied, her legs shaking underneath her weight. "I already know what the answer is, but please, put our problems of the past aside and accept us into your group. I'm begging you..." She was almost certain they wouldn't forgive her and her group, but to her surprise, the blue hound accepted them. "W-what? You mean -..."

Delta and Acadia were just as shocked as Aimant. "What!?" they shrilled simultaneously.

"Your words are truthful, Luxray, and I forgive you. But going the way of a criminal was never necessary."

"Anubis, what the hell are you doing?" Delta asked angrily. "They've been stealing from us!"

"Remember: I can sense their aura. They're weak and if we don't feed them they will most likely die."

"But they tried to kill us that one time."

"Delta, that was in self defense, you fool."

Delta nodded and reluctantly accepted the group just as Anubis had done.

Acadia sighed and accepted the group as well. 'Anubis' aura sight never lies,' she thought to herself as she snickered.

Aimant looked at the salamence with glee.

"I guess you don't need me anymore," it said plaintively, starting its wings up. "So long, friend. 'till we meet again." It jumped into the air and took off from where it had come from, taking the gardevoir along with it.

"Thank you both!" Aimant cried to the salamence and gardevoir. "Thank you two so much!" She coughed and stumbled to her knees, having used too much of her precious breath. The dragon was now but a speck in the distance. "'till we meet again," she mused.

"We better head to a market," Delta advised, regarding the state the group was in.

The six of them walked to the nearest beach town, Longport, while thoroughly introducing themselves. Delta and Acadia still didn't trust them very much. Even Anubis wasn't sure what to think of them, despite their truthful words. Who knows, they could just be up to something. They could be able to conceal their true thoughts from Anubis, just like Acadia. That night, the six animals ate until they were stuffed. The trio had fun, but they were, and will probably remain, very wary of the newcomers.


	11. Valediction

*** XI: Valediction ***

Traveling through New Jersey was unfortunately uneventful for the hextad. Although, Aimant, Tenebris, and Jay were willing to let Delta teach them to steal, to try and make up for what they had done. After Delta had told them of their airplane plan, and when he had initially proposed to teach them, Tenebris answered quizzically, "Why would you need _us_ to steal? You and Acadia already know how to, right?"

A rush of intense anxiety suddenly flowed throughout the ninetales' body as she looked at the absol in shock. She shut her eyes and gritted her teeth together, mentally praying to God that Delta wouldn't understand what she had meant. 'How do they know I've been stealing from Delta and Anubis? Had they been watching me before I joined the group? Tenebris, keep your mouth shut!' To her relief, Delta shook his head.

"No, no, Acadia doesn't steal. I tried to teach her, hah-hah!" He turned to Acadia, giving her a warm smile. "She just makes me steal for her."

"What?" Tenebris cocked her head to the side. "Wait..." She looked at Acadia, who glared back at her. Squinting her eyes, Tenebris looked from the ninetales to the umbreon. "Oh!"

"We should get a move on," Acadia suggested, giving the absol a threatening look.

"We'll let you teach us," Aimant accepted. "It's the least we can do, but we may not be very good at it. We can steal from people, but we've never tried stealing from right under their noses – _I've_ never tried stealing from right under their noses."

They proceeded up the beach, consulting about larcenous schemes and tactics. Anubis, who had been (fortunately) swimming, not wanting to be involved with the thief recruit, joined up with them and asked Delta what their answer was.

"They said yes."

"Well, good, I guess." Anubis shook the salt water from his body, creating a fine, rainbow-hued mist.

Acadia stared blankly at Anubis. 'He's suspicious of me already as it is. If he heard what Tenebris said... Jesus, how am I going to keep this secret hidden? _I can't_.'

Despite the physical features of the luxray, absol, and croagunk, they still turned out to be pretty good thieves, nonetheless. Humans are just more ignorant than percipient, perhaps. By the time the group had reached New York, they had collected 600 dollars. When they were in New York, they made the mistake of entering New York City. Anubis, being a fairly rare animal, was assaulted with multiple projectile red and white cages by trainers, just for all of them to ricochet off his fur and fall to the ground in failure. Don't humans realize that in order to catch animals, you have to weaken them with your own? Animal fighting was too passé for them.

The odd, jackal-human hybrid was the main attraction of the entire group. Acknowledging this, Delta looked up at Anubis enviously. No one was ever interested in an umbreon. Probably because umbreon are quadruped creatures and cannot work as efficiently as two-legged, two-handed humanoids. Traveling through that city proved to be a bad idea, but the good news was that the group had stolen an unnatural abundance of money. People carried purses as big as grocery baskets around with them! The roads were certainly paved with diamonds in New York City.

Connecticut was uneventful, like New Jersey. Rhode Island was... well, it was small... It wasn't until Massachusetts that something interesting happened. Anubis, Delta, Aimant, Tebebris, and Jay were in the ocean. The group's current latitude and the fact that is was late August would explain the chilly temperature of the water, but the swimmers didn't mind or even notice. Their thick coats of fur protected them from the temperature. Acadia refused to go into the ocean. She liked water and all, but cold water, on the other hand... She solitarily sat on the outskirts of the sand, where unlike all the other beaches they had traversed, trees grew from the sand and formed a forest where there would normally be sand dunes. She had been guarding their groceries and Delta's wallet while she longingly watched them having fun in the water. With a groan, she reached behind her and extracted her collected money from in between her tails. She then slyly open Delta's wallet with her snout and put her money – _his_ money inside its pocket.

She looked upwards, and to her surprise saw the umbreon slinking his way towards her. 'Oh no... Did he see me?"

Delta sat next to Acadia and gazed at the horizon.

"Hey, Klepto. Why aren't you swimming?"

Delta shrugged. "It's dusk. The sharpedo feed now. I don't feel like fighting them off. I'd rather talk to you."

Acadia's ear twitched like the light of a candle. A blush crept to her face, unnoticed by Delta. "Oh, is that so?"

Delta nodded and began to groom himself.

"Delta," Acadia stirred nervously where she sat, watching the sun set. "Is it okay if I... maybe... come with you guys?"

The umbreon abruptly ceased grooming himself and looked at Acadia, his eyes wide. "R-Really?"

"Well, provided we can actually get tickets and get on a plane. But we nearly have enough money for the three of us, thanks to Aimant's gang. Is it okay with you?"

"Yes!" he exclaimed, throwing himself at Acadia. She stumbled backwards but quickly stabilized herself and chuckled.

"Well, _provided_, okay?"

"We're getting on that plane no matter what it takes... But, I would have been sad if we left you."

Acadia nuzzled her snout against Delta's neck, receiving a purr from him. "We won't leave each other, don't worry." She was smitten with him, and there was no denying it. She still felt guilty about her stealing from him before she had joined him, but it's not like she had betrayed him; she stopped stealing once she was in their group. Actually, she had stolen from him once or twice after she joined, but that was in the beginning. 'Why bother,' she had thought to herself. 'Delta supplies me with everything I need.' But that previously stolen money was for her future home. Her future home in Maine. Her plans had changed, though, and for this, Delta was elated.

'To Hell with that xatu and its advice,' Acadia thought rebelliously. 'If our relationship ends tragically, I don't care. I might as well enjoy it while it lasts, given that the xatu's future sight was even accurate.' She looked down at the umbreon, who looked up at her. Their scarlet eyes locked on to one another's. 'I should really tell him how I feel. Now's probably the best time. But what if he doesn't love me back? No, he _must_ love me back. The way he acts towards me, his constant caring towards me, he _must_ love me back, right?'

She pondered for one final moment before opening her mouth, her heart racing. Before she could even utter a single sound, Delta laid his paws on her chest and pushed himself up towards her face with his legs. Without warning, he planted his lips onto Acadia's. She flinched, not comprehending what was happening. Finally, realization hit her in a swift heat wave, and she willingly returned the kiss.

A breeze made its way through the forest, rustling its red and yellow leaves. The breeze ceased and the world fell silent. The waves tranquilly rolled over the sand, emitting little to no noise. The last of the sun shown over the forest, the beach, and the clouds. Everything was a pink-ish, vibrant hue. Everything from the trees to the sand.

After about half a minute, Delta and Acadia retracted from their kiss and looked deeply into each other's eyes. The breeze picked up and rustled the leaves, the beach reeds, and the waves, once again, exploded violently atop the sand.

"Acadia... I'm sorry." Delta bowed his head in embarrassment. "I don't know what came over me."

"Delta, do you... _love_ me?"

Delta lifted his head and looked at the ninetales again. He hesitated for a moment, trying to get a sense of how the fox was feeling. Alas, her face was expressionless, and this somewhat intimidated Delta. "I – yes," he stuttered nervously. "I do, I guess..."

Acadia suddenly smiled. "I love you, too," she cooed, anticipating Delta's response.

"You do?" Delta perked up his ears in shock. "For how long? R-Really!?"

Acadia giggled, gaining satisfaction from Delta's ecstatic response. "Yes. It took me a while to realize it, but I guess I was subconsciously in love with you from when we first had met." She leaned over and kissed Delta on the forehead, before enveloping him in her tails. He leaned against her side and closed his eyes.

'I guess I don't need to force myself to sleep to have dreams about her anymore,' he smiled to himself. '...because I _don't_ need to have dreams about her anymore.' He was suddenly overcome by immense exhaustion. He fell asleep, leaving Acadia to watch as the stars became visible in the sky one by one.

Once the group had reached New Hampshire, it had been two and a half weeks since Anubis and Delta had started their journey. It wasn't over, yet, though. Acadia and Delta had kept their recent _confessions_ a secret from the rest of their team. They didn't really have any reason in particular for doing so, it just seemed as though it wasn't important, nor would the rest care about it anyway. However, Delta did discuss Acadia accompanying them to Egypt with Anubis, who hesitantly accepted (he was still extremely vigilant of the suspicious fox).

The team was doing well until they had first entered New Hampshire. It was early in the morning when it happened. Anubis, Delta, and Aimant had abandoned their post to swim in the cold ocean. Acadia had followed them, but refused to go into the water as usual and decided to watch instead. Delta, not wanting to let his wallet get ruined, left it with Tenebris and Jay to guard it back at their camp. Anubis left the ocean and walked up to the ninetales.

"What are you thinking of?" he inquired. "Oh, wait, I'll just read your mind and find out myself."

"Go ahead," Acadia said apathetically. "There's nothing on my mind at the moment."

"There's nothing ever on your mind." Anubis closed his eyes and tried his best to assess Acadia. Once again, he wasn't able to read her thoughts. He groaned, but before he opened his eyes again, something caught his attention: In the distance, back at their station, he noticed the lively essence of Tenebris' and Jay's aurae, beyond some overgrown shrubbery.

The absol pawed at Delta's wallet, examining it.

"What are you doing, Bris?"

"Jay... there's... so much money in here..."

"Come on, leave the wallet alone. I'm going for a swim. Don't go causing disasters, okay?"

"I don't cause disasters!" Tenebris scoffed, grasping the wallet in her paws.

Suddenly, Anubis burst from behind the overgrown shrubs and pointed at the absol menacingly. "You!" he shouted. Acadia ran from the shrubs to join Anubis. "What are you doing with our money?"

"What?" Acadia shrilled.

Tenebris dropped the wallet and looked at Anubis, blankly. "I – oh, I was—"

"Stealing our money?" Anubis accused. "We didn't tell you to touch our wallet, so what the hell?"

"I wasn't going to steal it, I was just looking at it!"

"I felt your urge, don't lie to me, Tenebris."

"What do you mean you 'felt my urge'?"

"And to think, you lot had been traveling with us a while now, and we've been supplying you with food, so why would you ruin everything for yourselves now?" the hypocritical ninetales roared.

"Wait, wait," Jay interrupted, holding his webbed hands up to the conflicting animals. "_Ruin_?"

"Yes," Anubis replied. "I – we want you out of our sight."

"You can't be serious!" Tenebris yelled in disbelief. "I wasn't planning on stealing your damn wallet!"

"I sensed your intentions," Anubis explained. "I'm sorry, but we need to keep our money safe with us. We have nearly enough money to afford our tickets, so we no longer need you anyway."

"God dammit, Tenebris" Jay groaned.

"Relax," ordered the lucario. "Delta has taught you how to steal. You can do fine by yourselves from here on out. We just... we just need to be very careful with our money. Sorry we can't trust you."

"But – we – I..." Tenebris stuttered angrily. "Screw you, Anubis, and you too, Acadia!"

"How dare you?" Acadia growled. "Just leave! If we see you again, we'll kill you!"

Anubis rested his paw on the fox's shoulder, trying to calm her. "Control yourself."

Finally, the absol gave in and began to walk from their base, gesturing for Jay to follow her. "Aimant!" she called. The luxray left the water and looked at Tenebris questioningly. She then walked down the beach until she reached her two friends.

"What's wrong?"

"We're leaving. Come on."

After several minutes of the confused Aimant questioning Tenebris, they finally said their farewells and gave their hosts a final glance of remorse before leaving.

Delta approached the two. "What happened? You banished them? Why?"

"It doesn't matter," said the lucario. "We have nearly enough money for our tickets. They don't need to work for us any longer."

"You think they'll be alright on their own?"

"I'm sure they'll be fine."

Anubis, Acadia, and Delta watched intently as the three traveled down the beach until they were no longer visible.

* * *

**Temporary Note: Fffffff... Just remembered how the sun sets in the west and rises in the east. I've portrayed this fact differently in my story by accident. Obviously, I don't know how to Pokémon, nor do I know how to solar system. I went and polished my story to the max recently, so this has been fixed.**

**Another thing: I've started a new Fanfiction about a manectric and a luxray. Hopefully, I will also be updating that during the weekends. It's called _Take Charge_. If you're interested, you can find it on my profile.**

**Thanks again for reading! Please review. I'd really appreciate it.  
Srsly Guize.**  
**Guize Srsly.  
Srsly.  
Guize.**


End file.
